Document Type : Scientific - Research
Authors
Department of Foreign Languages, Iran University of Science and Technology
Abstract
With the rapid growth in technology and the use of information technologies in today’s language teaching and learning, a recent educational site known as Edmodo came to vogue. Since writing is considered as the most demanding skill in technical English courses, this study was conducted to explore the effectiveness of Edmodo as a novel pedagogical platform on Railway Engineering students’ academic writing. It also aimed to determine their perceptions of the advantages and challenges of writing academic texts via Edmodo. The participants were 20 railway engineering students at Iran University of Science and Technology. A language proficiency test, a pretest, midtest, and a posttest followed by three open-ended questions were the instruments of this study. The analysis of the data showed that Edmodo had a positive impact on improving railway engineering students’ writing performance. The results also revealed that low speed of uploading and access to Edmodo and uncertainty about the submission of the tasks were the most frequent drawbacks of Edmodo, whereas cooperation and sharing comments about other classmates’ writings, having access to others’ production, assisting classmates in solving their writing problems, using their comments and style of writing as a model for improving writing were the benefits reported by the students, respectively.
Keywords
Adas, D., & Bakir, A. (2013). Writing difficulties and new solutions: Blended learning as an approach to improve writing abilities. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 3(9), 254-266.
Ali, Z. (2015). A case study of tertiary students’ experiences using Edmodo in language learning. The International Journal of Language Education and Applied Linguistics (IJLEAL), 2, 39-48 [in Persian].
Al-Naibi, I., Al-Jabri, M., & Al-Kalbani, I. (2018). Promoting students’ paragraph writing using EDMODO: An action research. TOJET: Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 17(1), 130-143.
Arroyo, G. (2011). Online social networks: Innovative ways towards the boost of collaborative language learning. ICT for Language Learning (4th ed.).
Bayne, A. G. (n.d.). Asynchronous communication tools. EDIT 5370-Foundations of Distance Education, pp. 1-8, Retrieved from. http://gailalleynebayne.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/5/2/23521060/module_4-asynchronous_communication.pdf
Carolan, F., & Kyppö, A. (2015). Teaching process writing in an online environment. In J. Jalkanen, E. Jokinen, and P. Taalas. Voices of pedagogical development -Expanding, enhancing and exploring higher education language learning (pp. 13). France: Research-publishing.net.
Gardner, M. (2013). Social media and peer review: Edmodo in the composition classroom. (Unpublished master’s thesis). Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia.
Hastomo, T. (2016). The effectiveness of Edmodo to teach writing viewed from students’ motivation. Proceeding of International Conference on Teacher Training and Education (ICTTE). Indonesia, Sebelas Maret University. 580-585.
Hodges, T. S., & Morgan. H. (2017). Focus on technology: Digitizing students’ writing with online tools, Childhood Education, 93(1), 93-95.
Kaba, F. (2018). Edmodo as an assessment tool in the foreign language learning process. European Journal of Social Science Education and Research, 5(3), 117-122.
Karyawati, A. (2014). A descriptive study on the use of Edmodo website for English teaching and learning process (Unpublished master’s thesis). Salatiga State Institute for Islamic Studies, Salatiga, Java, Indoneisia.
Kongchan, C. (2012). How a non-digital-native teacher makes use of Edmodo. International conference on ICT for Language Learning. Florence: Italy.
Lara, V.D. (2013). The improvement of writing based on a genre approach through the use of an e-learning platform (Unpublished Thesis). University of Veracruz, Veracruz.
Ma’azi, H., & Janfeshan, K. (2018). The effect of Edmodo social learning network on Iranian EFL learners’ writing skill. Cogent Education, 5(1), 1-17.
Sankey, M., Birch, D., & Gardiner, M. (2012). The impact of multiple representations of content using multimedia on learning outcomes across learning styles and modal preferences. International Journal of Education and Development using ICT, 7(3), 18-35.
Scott, M. (2012). Go ahead ... be social: Using social media to enhance the Twenty-First Century classroom. Distance Learning, 9(2), 54-59.
Shams-Abadi, B. B., Ahmadi, S. D., & Mehrdad, A. G. (2015). The effect of Edmodo on EFL learners’ writing performance. International Journal of Educational Investigations, 2(2), 88-97[in Persian].
Woodley, C., & Meredith, C. (2012). Supporting student transition through social media. American Journal of Distance Education, 26(2), 86-95.
Yusuf, Q., Yusuf, Y. Q., Erdiana, N., & Pratama, A. R. (2018). Engaging with Edmodo to teach English writing of narrative text to EFL students. Problems of Education in the 21st Century, 76(30), 333-349.
Zheng, B., Yim, S., & Warschauer, M. (2018). Social media in the writing classroom and beyond. The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching.
)