Towards Ubiquitous Learning of Balinese-to-Latin Script Transliteration as Part of Balinese Language Education

摘要

As part of the Balinese culture in Indonesia, the Balinese script has rarely been used today. Its Balinese-to-Latin script transliteration knowledge is also affected by that condition and has caused concern over the threat of extinction. This study is aimed to preserve that knowledge through a technological approach by collaboration between Information Technology and Balinese Language discipline. This research analyzed the ubiquitous learning aspect of Balinese-to-Latin script transliteration as part of Balinese Language education, which is a mandatory local subject from basic to high school in Bali Province. This analysis was conducted on the Balinese Glyph Recognition (BalineseGR) web application that was developed as a technology product of Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha (Undiksha), Indonesia. Balinese is a sort of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) web application that receives a Balinese script image and outputs Latin text. It was considered as the first Balinese-to-Latin script transliteration web application using JavaScript for the algorithm. Recently, its initial development has covered transliteration knowledge of eighteen Balinese script's basic syllables (Aksara Wresastra) only. Since ubiquitous learning is supported by mobile computer through a wireless network, and it is aimed to provide learners with content and interaction anytime and anywhere, BalineseGR web application has several aspects to concern about (1) its counterpart mobile application development where image input not only from a file but also more useful directly from a camera, and (2) richer knowledge content, including a transliteration of the vowels (Aksara Suara), additional basic syllables (Aksara Swalalita), sound killers (Pangangge Tengenan), numerals, punctuations, ligatures, and miscellaneous glyph.