THE USE OF EDMODO TO IMPROVE THE EIGHTH GRADE
STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL
IN SMPN 1 YOGYAKARTA
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Cornelia Liris Ayuningtyas Student Number: 131214118
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
i
THE USE OF EDMODO TO IMPROVE THE EIGHTH GRADE
STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL
IN SMPN 1 YOGYAKARTA
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Cornelia Liris Ayuningtyas Student Number: 131214118
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
iv
DEDICATION PAGE
I dedicate this thesis to my beloved mother, Ibu Kristina Endang Sutarti and my beloved father, Bapak Yulius Wiyanto. I thank them for loving me unconditionally. Moreover, this thesis is dedicated to my grandfather and grandmother who never stop sending me prayers every night.
vii
ABSTRACT
Ayuningtyas, Cornelia Liris. (2017). The use of Edmodo to improve the eighth grade students’ writing skill in SMPN 1 Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
A monotonous teaching process and poorly printed worksheets require teachers’ serious attention. One of the ways to overcome these problems is by giving students a teaching medium which is Edmodo. Edmodo is an online teaching medium that teachers and learners can use for free inside and outside of classrooms. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the extent of the use of Edmodo to improve the eighth grade students’ writing skill in SMPN 1 Yogyakarta and to find out the advantages of Edmodo in the learning process.
This research used classroom action research (Mertler, 2009). Next, the subjects of this research were 34 students of the eighth grade, especially E class in SMPN 1 Yogyakarta. The instruments employed in this research were tests, questionnaires and interviews.
In this research, the researcher conducted two cycles of action research. There are four stages in each cycle namely planning, acting, developing and reflecting. In the first cycle, the mean score of the pre-test was 60.4. However, in the second cycle, the mean score of the post-test was 77.2. The gain of the tests was 16.8. Furthermore, the t score was – 6.67 (p-value < 0.05). It means Edmodo was effective to improve students’ writing skill especially in writing a narrative text. Moreover, the results of the questionnaire proved that there were 80% of the students who agreed that Edmodo was an effective medium to improve students’ writing skill. The students also perceived that Edmodo was a safe and interesting learning medium, Edmodo was beneficial for students to have discussion with teachers outside the classroom easily, and Edmodo helped students comment on other students’ work effectively.
viii ABSTRAK
Ayuningtyas, Cornelia Liris. (2017). The use of Edmodo to improve the eighth grade students’ writing skill in SMPN 1 Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Proses pembelajaran yang monoton dan lembar kerja yang kurang memadai memerlukan perhatian yang serius dari para guru. Salah satu cara untuk menangani masalah tersebut adalah dengan penyediaan media pembelajaran seperti Edmodo. Edmodo merupakan media pembelajaran online yang disiapkan untuk para guru dan siswa dalam melaksanakan proses pembelajaran baik di dalam maupun di luar kelas. Oleh karena itu, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui seberapa jauh penggunaan Edmodo meningkatkan kemampuan menulis para siswa kelas 8E di SMPN 1 Yogyakarta dan untuk mengetahui manfaat Edmodo dalam proses pembelajaran.
Penelitian ini menggunakan metode penelitian tindakan kelas yang mengadaptasi teori Mertler (2009). Subyek penelitian ini sebanyak 34 siswa-siswi kelas 8E di SMPN 1 Yogyakarta. Disamping itu, instrumen penelitian ini menggunakan tes, angket dan tanya-jawab.
Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti menerapkan dua cycle penelitian tindakan kelas. Setiap cycle terdapat empat tahapan yaitu, perencanan, pelaksanaan, pengembangan, dan refleksi. Pada cycle pertama, nilai tengah dari pre-test adalah 60.4. Sedangkan di cycle kedua, nilai tengah dari post-test adalah 77.2. Selisih angka dari nilai tengah kedua tes tersebut adalah 16.8. Selain itu, nilai t score adalah – 6.67 (p-value < 0.05). Maka, Edmodo adalah media yang efektif untuk meningkatkan kemampuan menulis para siswa terutama dalam menulis teks naratif. Sementara itu, hasil angket membuktikan bahwa 80% siswa-siswi menyetujui bahwa Edmodo adalah media yang efektif untuk meningkatkan kemampuan menulis mereka. Para siswa juga berpendapat bahwa Edmodo merupakan media pembelajaran yang aman dan menarik, Edmodo membantu mereka berdiskusi dengan guru ketika berada di luar kelas dengan mudah dan Edmodo membantu mereka memberikan komentar hasil kerja siswa lainnya secara efektif.
ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank the Almighty God who always blesses and loves me. Wherever I am and whatever I do, He is always beside me. He never leaves me alone. He brings me to the place where I can grow and improve well. He introduces me to people
who make my life more colorful and meaningful.
I would like also to express my best gratitude to my parents, Bapak Wiyanto
and Ibu Endang, my little sister, Dara and my little brother, Agil. Then, I would like to thank Mbah Kung, Mbah Uti, Simbok, for giving me support and love and for sending their little grandchild non-stop prayers.
Next, I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Yohana Veniranda, Ph.D., for everything she did for me. In the middle of her activities, she always spared her
time to meet me. She guided, supported, and motivated me to do my research and to have progress every week. Moreover, I thank her for sharing some great experiences to me. Then, I also thank all the lecturers in this study program (English
Language Education). When I came here, I was just nothing. Now, I am something because all the lecturers are so great and wonderful in sharing, guiding and accompanying me to learn precious things for my life. I cannot describe how
grateful I am to study here. I also thank Mbak Danik for helping me to proceed the permission letter for my thesis and for everything that she did. For all my friends in
E class, I thank them for our togetherness during my study.
Furthermore, I thank Ibu Dra. Y. Niken Sasanti, M.Pd and Pak Agus
x
Moreover, I thank Ibu Dra. Agatha Yenni L as my supervisor while I was doing my research. She helped, guided, supported and accompanied me during my
research. I express big thanks to my students in 8E class. They are so awesome, great and wonderful. I like being a teacher there. Without the students’ participation
and willingness, my research would not have been completed.
I express special thanks to my housemates, Santi, Mbak Rani, and Tika. I thank them for being my closest family here. They have made my life more
meaningful. I thank them for always listening to every single story that I told them. For my best friends, Windy, Ovi, Bertha and Isna, I am grateful to know them and
to have wonderful friends like them. I thank them for being my friends who are always beside me, share everything, do gossiping, and travel together. Furthermore, I would like to thank Kak Erlyn for being my proofreader and giving me some
suggestions about my thesis.
Then, I also thank EMC (English Mass Community), my PPL and KKN friends, my beloved A3’s group, OMK Minomartani, and all my friends who are
from Palembang, I thank them for always asking me “kapan ris? kapan mbak?”
actually those questions are really painful but they motivated me to get the answer of those questions.
xi
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ... iv
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ... v
ABSTRACT ... vi
LIST OF APPENDICES ... xv
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION A. Research Background... 1
B. Research Questions ... 4
C. Significance of the Study ... 4
1. English teachers ... 4
2. Students ... 5
3. Future researchers ... 5
D. Definition of Terms ... 5
1. Teaching Media ... 5
2. Edmodo ... 6
3. SMPN 1 Yogyakarta ... 6
4. Writing Skill ... 7
xii
Page
1. Language Teaching Media ... 8
2. Edmodo ... 10
3. Writing Skill ... 13
4. Teaching Writing for EFL ... 15
5. Classroom Action Research (CAR) ... 17
B. Theoretical Framework ... 18
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A. Research Method ... 20
B. Research Setting ... 20
C. Research Participants/Subjects... 22
D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique ... 23
1. Instruments ... 23
2. Data Gathering Technique ... 24
E. Data Analysis Technique ... 25
1. Interview ... 26
2. Test and Questionnaire ... 26
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION A. Research Findings ... 28
1. Cycle 1 ... 28
a. Planning Stage of Cycle 1 ... 28
b. Acting Stage of Cycle 1 ... 30
c. Developing Stage of Cycle 1... 31
d. Reflecting Stage of Cycle 1... 32
2. Cycle 2 ... 33
a. Planning Stage of Cycle 2 ... 33
b. Acting Stage of Cycle 2 ... 34
c. Developing Stage of Cycle 2... 34
xiii
Page
B. To what extent Edmodo improves students’ writing skill ... 37
C. Advantages of Edmodo ... 42
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS A. Conclusions ... 50
B. Recommendations ... 51
1. Students ... 51
2. Teachers ... 51
3. Future researchers ... 52
REFERENCES ... 53
xiv
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
2.1 Rubric of writing ... 16
xv
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
2.1 Edmodo Account ... 10
2.2 The Process of Mertler’s model of action research ... 17
3.1 Students’ comment ... 35
4.1 The results of the questionnaire ... 40
4.2 Students’ writing and teacher’s feedback ... 45
4.3 Revised version of student’s writing ... 45
4.4 Students’ comment ... 46
xvi
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix Page
Appendix 1 Permission letters ... 56
Appendix 2 The score of pre- and post-test ... 61
Appendix 3 Questionnaire... 63
Appendix 4 Summary of the interview ... 65
Appendix 5 Lesson plan ... 70
Appendix 6 The pictures used in the post-test ... 87
Appendix 7 Pre-test worksheet ... 89
Appendix 8 Layout of the post-test ... 91
Appendix 9 Exercises ... 93
Appendix 10 Observation checklist ... 97
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the researcher provides background information related to the use of Edmodo to improve students’ writing skill. There are sub-sections in this
chapter, namely research background, research questions, significance of the study, and definition of terms.
A. Research Background
In the era of 21st Century learning, technology has become one of the most important things in the educational field. McKeeman and Oviedo (2013) state “Technology is becoming an essential, instructional tool that can be applied to
enhance teaching in a language classroom” (p. 68). Besides, many teachers believe
that technology will bring potential benefits for the students (Roblyer & Edwards,
2000, p. 12).
Since technology is beneficial for students, it might be better for teachers to use it in a classroom. Unfortunately, not all teachers in Indonesia have used
technology as their teaching learning media for many reasons. In fact, the integration of technology within the 21st Century language classroom promotes students’ active engagement through collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and
communication (McKeeman & Oviedo, 2013, p. 68). It means that through technology, students are more active to involve in the language classroom and they
In this era, there are also various kinds of technology. One of them is Internet. Using internet, teachers and students can exchange messages and files
among themselves. Moreover, the existence of internet in language arts and English classes will provide unexpectedly powerfuls support to students (Roblyer &
Edwards, 2000, p. 243). The powerful support from Internet is that students will get more access to find some referential sources for their learning materials. As teachers, they also have to help their students to be good users of the Internet’s
information so that they will not misuse the existence of Internet.
While students and teachers are using internet, they might also find several
different websites which provide different functions. So, they might get some difficulties in choosing the appropriate one. In fact, Edmodo is one of the appropriate websites for students and teachers to support the learning process. According to Cauley (n.d), “Edmodo is an educational site that takes the ideas of a
social network and refines them and makes it appropriate for a classroom” (p. 1). Edmodo is a teaching media for teachers to enhance students’ knowledge about a
particular subject.
Edmodo is similar to social media like Facebook and it is also well known as a Facebook for schools (Thompson, n.d.). Because of its similarity, students will easily use this medium and they do not need to learn it deeper. Thompson (n.d.)
adds that Edmodo is greater in educational apps. So, Edmodo is designed for an educational medium. Therefore, it will also attract students’ attention to the learning
In learning English, students need to learn four basic skills of English like listening, speaking, reading and writing. DeVoss, Aadahl and Hicks (2010) argue that writing is the foundation of all students’ communication (p. 54). Alexander
(2008, as cited in Hosseini, Taghizadeh, Abedin & Naseri, 2013) gives more explanation that having strong writing skills may increase students’ success in
language classroom. Concerning these two ideas that writing is important and it will influence students’ achievement, the researcher used writing as a target skill to be
developed in the learning process.
Moreover, when the researcher did her teaching practice, the researcher
observed that students who were doing their writing task found some difficulties in imagining the context because there was no provided pictures on the worksheets. They were only given some names of animal. So, the students asked the teacher to open their gadget to see the picture of the animals. According to Stokes, “without
image, thinking is impossible” (n.d.). Therefore, providing pictures on students’
writing task might help them to do it easily. If teachers use printed worksheets, it may cost expensively to print some pictures which have a good quality. It means
the worksheets are impractical because they need much money on them (Brown, 2004, p. 19). However, because of the existence of Edmodo, teachers might not be worried again. So, students might not face a lot of difficulties to imagine the
context.
In fact, the students of SMP N 1 Yogyakarta are expected to use technology
case, it will ease the students to be linked to Edmodo because the school has provided the facility.
This research aims to analyze to what extent the use of Edmodo improves students’ writing skill. Since they might want to develop their English writing in an
attractive way, Edmodo hopefully will help students to achieve their needs. Moreover, it will decrease their intensity to open other social media which make them being lazy to learn. By using Edmodo, students will be more active to
participate in doing their tasks. From the regular uses of Edmodo, students will give some opinions about the advantages of using Edmodo in their English language
class.
B. Research Questions
Based on the research background which has been described, the researcher formulates two questions which become the focus of this research:
1. To what extent does Edmodo improve students’ writing skill?
2. What are the advantages of using Edmodo for the eighth graders of SMP N 1 Yogyakarta?
C. Significance of the Study
1. English teachers
Through this study, teachers realize that it might be helpful for them to use
Edmodo as a new medium among students. Teachers and students are connected to each other even though they are not in the classroom. Teachers can still give
students some assignments or any kind of tasks although they are not in the school.
2. Students
Students might be more active to do their tests or assignments because they are using a new medium. Moreover, students can do their tasks everywhere as long as they have a good internet connection. Edmodo can engage students to learn more
about English. They can also be connected to their classmates and share some ideas about their tasks. So, using Edmodo might help students to improve their English ability, especially writing.
3. Future Researchers
Looking at the result of this study, the next researchers will gain more
information about Edmodo. They can extend their research in other field/skills. They can try to examine the misbehavior that will appear during the process of using Edmodo. Moreover, they can observe students’ characteristics that might
make them become more active, critical and creative.
D. Definition of Terms
In this section, there are some definition of terms which relate to this
1. Teaching Media
Teaching media are important tools for teaching learning processes.
According to Burke (2001), teaching media are a medium used for teachers to introduce, explain, present knowledge in the classroom effectively (p. 11). So, in
this study the researcher uses an educational medium in teaching-learning processes in order to make the learning process more interesting. Teaching media also help the students to learn something easily.
2. Edmodo
Nowadays, there are a lot of educational websites that provide some
innovative features for a classroom. One of them is Edmodo. Edmodo is seen as a social network for students (Cauley, n.d.). It is also called as an educational network which can connect both students and teachers around the world. Edmodo can be
accessed at www.edmodo.com. So, when teachers and students have already had their own account to connect to Edmodo, teachers can share some teaching
materials to students. Edmodo is not only to share the materials but also the assignments for students even the tests. Therefore, the researcher used Edmodo as a language teaching medium for students in this research in order to help them to
be able to improve their English writing skill through some assignments or tests.
3. SMP N 1 Yogyakarta
Moreover, to gather data for this study, the researcher conducted the whole research in this school.
4. Writing skill
Both students and teachers have to master four English skills such as
listening, speaking, reading and writing. Since writing is a complex and complicated skill, so in this context the researcher focuses on the writing skill.
According to Elbow (1973, pp. 14-16, as cited in Brown, 2001), writing is the result of someone’s thought, feeling and perceptions which are expressed using words.
So, the researcher used writing as a product of the students in using Edmodo.
8
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, the researcher presents some theoretical reviews related to
this research. This chapter includes two sections, namely theoretical description and theoretical framework of this study.
A. Theoretical Description
In this section, the researcher discusses the theories which are relevant to
this research. There are six parts which are reviewed based on the study being researched.
1. Language Teaching Media
As a teacher, media might be one of the important parts to support the
learning process. According to Rao (2014), if teachers use a medium in an educational setting, it will complement the teaching learning processes. As a
complement tool, it will help teachers in delivering the materials easily. Besides, the use of media in the classroom will attract and increase students’ interest. They will contribute actively in learning process. Rao (2014) also explains if a medium is introduced in the classroom, it will engage students’ enthusiasm in learning the
language and motivate them to learn more.
Therefore, after providing various media that might attract students’ interest, teacher expects that students will be more active in the learning process. So,
Students might not want to end the learning processes sooner.
In addition, language teaching media act as a facilitator in the teaching
learning process. As a teacher that teaches the 21st century students, she/he has to be able to make the class more interesting in terms of how the teacher delivers the materials and gives the assignments to students. There are a lot of popular media
that can be used. Bertram, Ranby, Adendorff, Reed and Nicky (2010) mention some media in teaching learning process such as print media (newspaper and magazines),
electronic media (television and radio), textbooks and computer technologies (the uses of internet to access some materials in the classroom).
In fact, a computer technology is one of the teaching media in the 21st
century learning. Students nowadays might prefer to use it in their learning processes. Bertram, et al. (2010) adds “the computer and internet are spoken of as a new miracle cure to educational problems.” It is said so because the existence of
computer and internet can help teachers to deal with the problems faced in the
classroom. Unfortunately, there might some teachers who have not mastered in using that kind of media because they tend to be digital immigrants, who have come late to the world of technology (Dudeney & Hockly, 2007, p. 9). So, there are still
some teachers who use traditional media in the classroom. As a result, the students might easily get bored or be lack of enthusiasm. Bertram, et al. (2010) also states
deal with their problems at the school easily. They can do their assignments quickly. However, when teachers have decided to use the computer technology as a medium
in her/his language classroom, she/he has to be able to operate the computer well.
2. Edmodo
One of the appropriate websites used in a teaching learning environment is Edmodo. According to Cauley (n.d), “Edmodo is a site that takes the ideas of a social network and refines them and to make it appropriate for a classroom.”
Edmodo is an online educational medium which is used by teachers, students and
parents. Because of its similarity to Facebook, Edmodo is more powerful site and easier to use in a classroom.
Furthermore, Bayne (n.d) explains that Edmodo is a kind of social network which focuses on learning and discussion and it allows both students and teacher
have interaction and collaboration online (p. 1). Moreover, ISTE (2015) explains that “Edmodo is an educational social network which provides students a safe,
protected educational experience, a place to practice the digital-age social networking and learning skills they will need in their increasingly connected personal, academic, and later professional lives.” Therefore, students and teachers
can use it for the teaching learning process. A teacher makes a group account of the class then students log in Edmodo and input the group code from their teacher. So, there are only their teacher, students themselves and students’ parents in the group.
There will be no others or spy in that group (Jarc, 2010, as cited in Balasubramanian, et al., 2014).
In addition, when students and teachers use Edmodo, they will only focus on the learning process because there are no distractions such as advertisements on
it. It is also a close group so that teachers will control students easily. Through Edmodo, students and teachers can upload and share some files in many kinds of
format namely audio, video, picture and links (Thompson, n.d, p. 6).
Then, Luaran (2012) mentions that Edmodo can bring some benefits for the learning process. The first is measuring students’ progress. By using Edmodo
of who turned in the assignments and when. Students can also ask everything regarding to academic problems outside the school time.
Second, Edmodo is designed to engage students’ motivation in learning process because of various platform provided in this application. The features of
the platform are quizzes, assignments, online tests, messages, comments and document libraries. Through these features, students will not be bored to do the learning process and they will be more motivated. According to Balasubramanian,
et al. (2014), if teachers implement Edmodo in the classroom, it will be a powerful medium in their learning environment. In her research, Kara (2016) also states that
by using Edmodo, students can do their individual or group assignment online and teachers look at their works and give feedback online (p. 11).
Moreover, based on the previous study that was done by Apriani (2015)
56.7% of the students believed that Edmodo was an effective educational website to learn English, especially writing. Furthermore, Bayne (n.d.) feels that Edmodo
permits students to develop their creativity through writing (p. 2). Next, Thompson (n.d.) also believes that Edmodo is great for writing projects, language practice,
grammar practice and many more (p. 6). He also adds that in Edmodo, all works on all assignments are available and archived well because it has an outstanding memory (p. 8). Therefore, Edmodo can be one of the media for teachers to
encourage students practice their writing skill. Even though students and teachers do not meet in the classroom, their teacher can still give some meaningful feedback
both students and teacher have to connect their mobile device or laptop to the internet (Bayne, n.d., p. 2). Unfortunately, not all the classrooms have access to the
Internet. Thus, teachers need to provide the classroom with a good internet connection.
Bayne also adds that “since Edmodo is an online medium, there will be lag
time in feedback response from peers and/ teacher” (p. 2). Besides, if it is done
outside the classroom, some students might not have the tools to connect to
Edmodo. Moreover, the use of Edmodo might lead students to do the ethical issues such as copying and cheating on others’ work (Enriquez, 2014). It means that it will
provoke students to do plagiarism in educational field. However, the researcher will ensure that students will not do such things in this study.
3. Writing Skill
Writing is one of important skills in English. Generally, writing is production of someone’s idea which is written into media such as papers, computers
and gadgets. The production itself can be used as information, knowledge, and
entertainment for the reader. Moreover, according to Elbow (1973, pp. 14-16, as cited in Brown, 2001), “writing is a transaction with words whereby you free yourself from what you presently think, feel, and perceive.” Brown (2001) adds
writing is as a thinking process where the writer will go through some processes such as generating the ideas, organizing them, putting them cohesively, revising,
DeVoss, Aadahl and Hicks (2010) state when the writer writes something, she/he allows time to brainstorm and to experiment then revise what they have
written (p. 21). They also said when people write, they do not only become writers but also a reader who makes the work become a particular rhetorical situation. It
means the writer has to be able to make the reader feel the atmosphere of his/her writing. It should also influence the reader.
Nowadays people live in 21st century where technology might become the
central of everything especially an educational field. There are some students who might also realize that almost all their assignments are done by technology even students nowadays might prefer to use technology (gadget) to write teacher’s
explanation in the classroom. That is why the use of media especially technology in writing classroom is not only the tool for students to improve their writing but
also can it be used as a new teaching form of writing which involves both texts and images (Hyland, 2009, p. 60).
Moreover, Hyland (2009) also adds that the use of electronic technology on writing allows students to combine written texts with visual and audio media easily
and to access more information and to connect to the information in new ways. Hence, the existence of media in learning writing can be a breakthrough for teachers to be used in the classroom. Teachers can easily provide some pictures or audio to
4. Teaching Writing for EFL
English Foreign Language teachers have to be able to understand the
principles of teaching writing well, so that they can influence their students to be good writers. According to Nation (2009), there are two principles of teaching
writing. First is meaning-focused output which the learners should do a lot of writing and a lot of different kinds of writing; the writing should interest the learners and draw on their interests; learners should experience a feeling of success in most
of their writing; learners should use writing to increase their language knowledge; and learners should develop their language skill in the use computers to increase
the quality and speed of their writing. Second is language-focused learning which learners should have conscious strategies for dealing with parts of the writing process; spelling should be given an appropriate amount; learners should be aware
of the ethical issues involved in writing; and teacher should provide and arrange for feedback that encourages and improves writing (pp. 93-94).
To have various kinds of writing, teachers should arrange some assignments which can enrich students’ writing skills. According to Nation (2009), guided tasks
is one of the tasks which task is narrowed and guided in such an activity. He also adds that there are some types of guided tasks such as identification includes translation, look and write, picture composition and delayed composition items;
completion which the students are given words, sentences, a passage or pictures that have missing parts and they have to fill in those missing parts with the appropriate
Commonly to produce a good writing, students have to pay attention on some aspects. According to Brown (2001), the aspects are content, organization,
discourse, syntax, vocabulary use, and mechanical consideration like spelling and punctuation (p. 357). However, in this research, the researcher focused on narrative
writing and Glencoe (n.d.) divides the aspects of narrative writing assessments for junior high school into three main parts. Those three main parts are focus/organization; elaboration/support/style; grammar, usage and mechanics.
These aspects are described more in the following table:
Table 2.1 Rubric of Writing (adapted from Glencoe, n.d.)
Focus/Organization
- The writing expresses the views, thoughts, or feelings of the writer.
- The significance or main idea of the views, thought, or feelings is clear.
- The writing is organized in a way appropriate to the purpose and audience.
Comments
Score_____/35
Elaboration/Support/Style
- Ideas, opinions and general
statements are supported by specific details.
- Vivid language is used to add interest to the writing.
- Transition words help make the organization clear.
Comments
Score_____/35
Grammar, Usage and Mechanics
- The writing is free of misspellings, and words are capitalized correctly.
- Sentences are punctuated correctly and the piece is free of fragments and run-ons.
Comments
So, in this study the researcher used Glencoe’s writing assessment to
evaluate students’ writing. Moreover, to give meaningful evaluation, the researcher
adds some written feedback for the students, both on their writing pre-test and post-test. The first feedback was given on their worksheet and the second one was on
their Edmodo account.
5. CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH (CAR)
According to Mills (2007, as cited in Mertler, 2009), action research is about developing the professional disposition of the teachers and the teaching profession.
Action research can be a breakthrough for teachers to always pay attention on how well they teach in the classroom and whether the way they teach is effective or not. They can always reflect what teaching practice they have done, so that it allows
them to develop continuously their teaching practice.
There are numerous models of action research, in this research the researcher used Mertler’s model (2009) which have four stages in each cycle. They
are planning, acting, developing and reflecting stage (figure 2.2).
The researcher prefers to choose Mertler’s model because it has detailed information. It is used to resolve specific problems and improve students’ learning.
Every stage on this model has a step or some steps to be done such as: a) planning stage, in this stage there are four steps; step 1 which is identifying a topic for
research, step 2 which is limiting a topic, step 3 which is gathering preliminary information, step 4 which is reviewing the related literature; b) acting stage, in the second stage, the researcher does step 5 and 6 where the researcher applies the
action, collects and analyzes data; c) developing stage, this stage only consists of one step which is step 7. The researcher conducts this step by revising, changing
and improving future action; d) reflecting stage, the last stage in this model is composed of steps 8 and 9 where the researcher shares, communicates the results and reflects the process.
By the four stages have been mentioned, firstly the researcher did the planning stage where the researcher gathered the information about the problems
and reviewed on related literature about the topic. Secondly, the researcher conducted the acting stage where in this part the researcher implemented the action,
collected the data together, and analyzed the data. Thirdly, the researcher developed the next action or it can be said as a developing stage. The last is reflecting stage where the researcher thought carefully and deeply about the process of the research.
B. Theoretical Framework
educational website that can be used to share information, ideas, and knowledge. Moreover, teachers can upload various kinds of file such as audio, video, picture and links. So, Edmodo answers students’ and teachers’ problems in the classroom.
English itself has four basic skills that need to be mastered. One of those
skills is writing. Writing is a process of thinking, drafting, and revising that produces a product. Given a medium to express students’ idea in a form of writing might help them to improve it better. Edmodo can be a medium for students to learn
English easier and more attractive. In order to answer the first formulated problem, the researcher tried to compare students’ writing work before and after
implementing Edmodo.
To implement Edmodo in the classroom, the researcher gave the students some tasks that are stated in Nation theory. Next, the researcher evaluated students’
work using Glencoe’s writing assessment. Through implementing Edmodo, the researcher hopes she could gather the information about the first problem.
Moreover, the researcher compared the result of previous study that was done by Apriani about the extent of the use of Edmodo to improve students’ writing skill.
The second problem is the advantages of the use of Edmodo which was applied in the eighth graders, E class of SMP N 1 Yogyakarta. To answer this problem, the researcher combined the theory from ISTE, Bayne, Kara and
20
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the researcher describes the method and analysis of the
research. The description is divided into six sub-parts such as research method, research setting, research participants/subjects, instruments and data gathering technique, and data analysis technique.
A. Research Method
In order to answer the research problems, the researcher used a Classroom Action Research (CAR) that was adapted from Mertler (2009). As stated in chapter 2 that CAR is a method where students and teachers face a problem in teaching
learning processes then they try to find an action and apply the action into classroom activities so that it will be more conducive and effective. So, through action research
the researcher will find what solution or action might work better in the class. Thus, the researcher used an action research to find out the problems which were faced by students and to look for the suitable and effective techniques for them.
Moreover, the method itself consists of four stages such as planning, acting, developing and reflecting. The cycle can be seen in figure 2.2.
B. Research Setting
The research was done in SMP N 1 Yogyakarta. It is located in Jl. Cik Di
started conducting the observation during the teaching practice. It was from July until October 2016. The observation aimed to find out the problems faced by
students while having the English learning process.
Then, after the researcher did her teaching practice, the researcher
proceeded the research requirements such as permission letter for governor and others institute. The requirements were so complicated. Firstly, the researcher asked the permission letter to English’s secretary to be given to the governor of
Yogyakarta, which is in Bakesbangpol office. In that office, there are some requirements that must be submitted such as a thesis proposal, a permission letter from campus, a copy of an identity card, a copy of student’s ID card and a stamp.
Next, the researcher gave the requirements needed on 19 January 2017. After that, the researcher had to wait for one week to get the permission letter there.
Secondly, one week later the researcher got the permission letter from
Bakesbangpol and gave it to walikota office on 26 January 2017. In walikota office, if the researcher came in the morning, she/he will get the letter in the afternoon. However, if the researcher gave the letter in the afternoon, she/he will get it in the
next day.
Then, on 30 January 2017 the researcher gave the permission letter from
walikota to the school. After, the letter was accepted, the researcher met the English teacher and discussed the class which was used for the research. The researcher got 8E class which their English class was on Wednesday (3x40 minutes) and Saturday
Saturday class was used for a teaching practice student. So, the researcher did the research from 22 Februay until 22 March 2017 (22 February, 1, 8 and 22 March).
C. Research Participants/Subjects
The research participants were the students of the eighth grade, especially E class in SMP N 1 Yogyakarta. In this study, the researcher was not only as an
observer but also the teacher of the class, so it helped the researcher to know the improvement of the students after experiencing the action better and deeper.
The total number of the students were 34 students. In fact, 29 out of 34
students were counted as research subjects of the pre-test and the post-test. The other students could not become the subjects of this research because 2 out of 5 did not come at the pre-test so they were disqualified. Then 3 out of 5 did not do their
post-test even though the researcher had always reminded them to do it. However, since 34 students experienced the action, they were asked to fill the questionnaires.
None of them were left. All students were asked to share their experiences using the action.
Furthermore, the participants of the interviewees were 6 students. In fact,
one of the interviewees was doing his praying, so he did not join the interview session from the beginning but the researcher had made sure that the interviewee
D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique
In this part, the researcher describes the instrument used in this research
and how the data were gathered in order to answer the first and second formulated problem of the research.
1. Instruments
There were some instruments which were used for collecting the data: observation, interview, test and questionnaire. Since the researcher used four
instruments, there were four explanation about data gathering technique.
a. Interview
In this part, the researcher had prepared some lists of questions to be asked to the subject participants. According to Johnson and Larry (2012), interview is a data collection which the interviewer asks some questions regarding to this study to
the interviewee(s) (p. 198). Then, the purpose of the interview was to gain the information about the second formulated problem from this research which is about
the advantages of Edmodo. Moreover, the data also used as a supportive data of the first research problem. Besides, the researcher used qualitative interview because
the researcher wanted to dig more information about the problem of this research.
b. Tests
In this research, the researcher used some tests to know students’
improvement after using the Educational media, which is Edmodo. Based on Johnson and Larry, “test is used to measure attitudes, personality, self-perceptions, aptitude, and performance of research participants” (2012, p. 197). This data
two kinds of test which had been done, before and after the action. The test which was conducted before implementing the action was to know students’ prior
knowledge about writing a narrative text. After the students got the action and experienced it for about two times, the researcher gave them a post-test to know
whether there was improvement while they used the action or not.
c. Questionnaires
In this part, the researcher used questionnaires to get the answer from both
first and second formulated problems. Based on Johnson and Larry (2012) “Questionnaire is a self-report data-collection instrument that each research participant fills out as a part of a research study (p. 197).” The researcher distributed
the questionnaires to all students of the class. It was given after they experienced Edmodo. The distribution of the questionnaires were done two times because the
researcher did not check the total number of printed questionnaires. It must be 34 sheets but the researcher only got 24 sheets. So, the researcher had to come to school
and to give the other questionnaires to the students. In fact, the researcher had noted the name of students who did not fill the questionnaires so that the researcher would
not miss the students who have not done it.
2. Data Gathering Technique
In this section, the researcher describes how the data were gathered. Before the researcher decided to choose this topic, the researcher observed what students’
researcher tried to approach the students and asked them why they were not really interested in learning English. Some of them told that they were boring with the
class, the learning process was just monotonous, there were a lot of assignments and the teacher rarely used the media to attract students’ motivation in learning
English. Then, the researcher tried to find out deeper information related to their problems in their English class. At that time the researcher taught the students about a descriptive text. When they learned about it, the researcher provided them with
some pictures. Unfortunately, there were some students who complained about the handout given which was not readable. The picture provided was also not clear
enough so that the students were difficult to see and to describe it clearly.
Besides, it was impossible for the researcher to copy the handout using colorful ink whereas the total number of students were 34. It will cost much money.
In fact, the researcher is a student who cannot earn money by herself yet. That was why after finishing her teaching practice there, the researcher came to help students
overcome their problems in their English class. In addition, the English teacher in that school also supported this research even one of the teachers there asked the
researcher to give a small simulation for other teachers to use Edmodo.
E. Data Analysis Technique
In this research, the researcher describes ways how the finding are analyzed. Since the researcher used three instruments such as tests, interview and
1. Interview
Interview was done in a qualitative way, the researcher began with specific
information, noted any patterns about the data, formulated one or more the hypothesis and finally develop general conclusions and theories (Merlter, 2009). In
other words, the researcher made a narrative report about the results of interview. The researcher made sure the data got were interpreted in an accurate way without minimizing the data or changing the data. So, the researcher presented the data that
had been analyzed as it was.
2. Test and Questionnaire
After the students did the pre-test and the post-test, the researcher marked their writing using the rubric. It can be seen in appendix 6. After giving the score, the researcher input their score into Excel bar. Then, the researcher counted the
input score using t-test: two-sample assuming unequal variances. Next, the researcher noted the mean of pre-test and post-test. After that, she counted t Stat (p
value < 0.05) to state whether Edmodo is an effective media or not.
Furthermore, the researcher analyzed the final data using descriptive
statistics. Descriptive statistics is a method of data analysis to summarize and to organize the amount of numerical data (Mertler, 2009). For the questionnaire, the researcher counted the total number who chose every agreement degree manually.
However, to count the final data the researcher used Ms. Excel program. Therefore, the researcher input the data into excel. The formula used to get the result of the
Σ� = the amount who chose each degree
Σn = the total number of participants
The purpose of counting every degree of the questionnaire was to know the percentage of each statement being asked in the questionnaire. So, in this data, the researcher knew how the students perceived their experience using the action in the
form of percentage. ��
28
CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this chapter, the researcher presents research findings, the results of the
research and discussion about the use of Edmodo as a language teaching medium to improve the eighth grade students’ writing skill in SMPN 1 Yogyakarta. Moreover, in this section the researcher answers the formulated problems which are to what extent Edmodo improves students’ writing skill and what advantages the
students get while using Edmodo.
A. Research Findings
In this part, the researcher found the data after implementing the cycle of
classroom action research by Mertler (2009). During the research, there were some cycles that were done by the researcher. The cycle consisted of two cycles which
each cycle there were four stages. The cycle is explained below:
1. Cycle 1
a. Planning Stage of Cycle 1
In this stage, the researcher had got the problems faced by students and
teacher. The problems were the students were not interested in learning English because the teacher rarely used appropriate media. The teaching process was
the students at that time learned about a descriptive text, they could not express their English writing ability optimally. Then, the researcher provided the solution for the
students, it was Edmodo. The researcher knows that Edmodo does not only have one feature to upload an assignment for the students but also it can be used to upload
a picture, a song, a video, a game, and links related to the materials used in the class. In this context, the researcher used the feature of picture to help students to write their own story because Stokes states that thinking without image is difficult to do.
Moreover, the topic used in this research was a narrative text. The topic was according to the syllabus that has been made by the Education Ministry. So, in this
stage, the researcher explained what a narrative text is and gave the students some examples in the form of a video and text. All the materials were delivered using power point slide and students paid attention on the slide.
After that, the researcher gave a pre-test to the students. The type of the test was ordering (Nation, 2009). In this context, the students were asked to choose
group of words provided in the table. There were three columns and each column consisted of seven words. Then, they had to order and to write a narrative text based
on those words logically. In fact, they were also allowed to add more words to make the story more interesting. The pre-test worksheet was attached in appendix 7.
In the pre-test, the researcher did not limit the time as long as the students
could finish it on that day. It was lucky for the students because the English class was extended up to four hours, so they had enough time to write their story. They
things conducted such as formulating the problems faced by the students, finding the solution, explaining the material which was a narrative text and giving the
pre-test.
b. Acting Stage of Cycle 1
In this stage, actually the researcher wanted to use the computer laboratory that has a good internet connection and the students did not need to bring any media.
However, the researcher could not get the permission from the school to use the computer laboratory because the school would have a national examination and the
ninth grade students would use the computer there. So, in the first meeting of the research, the researcher had already asked the students to bring their laptop or hand phone as a medium to access Edmodo. Besides, the researcher had provided an
additional internet connection for the students and extra cables for their laptop charger. So, the learning process would be more conducive and effective.
Before the researcher implemented Edmodo, she explained to the students about some grammatical constructions related to a narrative text namely simple past
tense, direct and indirect speech and passive voice. After finishing explaining those topics, the researcher introduced the students to Edmodo and asked them to directly log in Edmodo as a student.
In Edmodo website, the researcher also asked the students to do some exercises provided. The type of the exercises was completion (Nation, 2009). For
researcher asked the students to change the form of the sentence. If the sentence is written using a direct speech, it must be changed into an indirect speech, and vice
versa.
The researcher observed that some students also downloaded the application
of Edmodo on their hand phone even though the teacher only asked the students to access it in the website. It means that some students were welcome to the existence of Edmodo as their learning medium.
Hence in this stage, the researcher had conducted some activities such as explaining the grammatical constructions related to a narrative text, introducing
Edmodo and implementing Edmodo through some exercises.
c. Developing Stage of Cycle 1
In order to develop the implemention of Edmodo, the researcher did a small observation to check whether the students had already done their exercises or not.
Twenty four out of 34 students did all the exercises given. Then, in the class the researcher reminded the students to do the exercises provided in Edmodo as soon
as possible. Moreover, the researcher would not give them the score, if they did not do it. As a result, some students who had not submitted their exercises were afraid of not getting the score and finally they did the exercises. From the problems, the
researcher saw that the students here had to be forced to do their exercises. Even though the exercises had already been posted in the online media, the students
do them. In this part, the researcher listed the name of students who were not turning in the exercises and called one by one. After that, the researcher asked what their
problems were and why they did not do the exercises.
To sum up the point of this stage, the researcher observed the activity
happened in the class and how the action was implemented in the class. Then, the researcher got the point of how modern the media used in the class, if the teacher does not take part directly on reminding or approaching the students themselves,
the students will neglect it easily.
d. Reflecting Stage of Cycle 1
During implementing Edmodo, the researcher had succeeded in improving students’ interest in learning English. The researcher could feel the atmosphere that
the students enjoyed all the processes. However, from the result of peer observation checklist, it showed that researcher had not used Edmodo optimally. When the
researcher explained the material, she used power point slide instead of asking students to open the material using Edmodo.
Moreover, there were some students who sat at the back did not pay attention on the researcher’s explanation. Furthermore, the students still tended to write their writing on the paper then rewrote it in Edmodo website. The observer
exercises, there were some students who did not do the exercises. Some students also were still not really enthusiastic.
In addition, the researcher agreed that the observer said the internet connection did not support the learning process well. Because of the limited user
capacity, some students who did not get both the internet connection from the school and researcher, they used their own internet connection. Their battery also easily got low, they had to charge it then continued to do the exercises. Then, the
materials were also too much and complicated especially for the direct and indirect speech. No one could get a perfect score. Even though the exercise had already been
uploaded again, the total number of students who turned in the exercises was only twenty one. Therefore, the researcher employed the second cycle in order to improve the first cycle.
2. Cycle 2
a. Planning Stage of Cycle 2
Concerning the problems faced by the students during the research, the
researcher tried to rearrange the way of the researcher implement the action. So, in this stage, the researcher did not only provide the internet connection from the mifi but also from her hotspot in the handphone. Besides, the student who got a problem
use their laptop, the researcher tried to lend her laptop for him or her. Moreover, from the cycle 1, it can be seen that the students were still confused of the use of
After giving explanation, the researcher returned their writing outcomes and asked them to check the comments given. Then, the researcher opened a question
and answer session. In this step, the researcher came to each student to give more explanation about their grammatical mistakes in the pre-test. They were so
enthusiastic to do that. So, it took more or less 40 minutes to do the question and answer session.
b. Acting Stage of Cycle 2
In this stage, the researcher asked the students to do a writing test, which
was used as a post-test (see appendix 8). The type of the test was identification (Nation, 2009). In this context, the researcher provided the students with three pictures series to ease the students to write their own narrative text. So, the students
were asked to observe the pictures and tell what happened in the pictures. The researcher’s supervisor, Bu Agatha, gave a suggestion that it was better to add some
words below each picture. Therefore, the researcher did not only provide some pictures but also some words related to each picture. All the words are in the form
of verbs. Since Edmodo can be used to upload colorful pictures, the researcher also combined the writing test with the pictures. The purpose of the pictures was to help the students imagine the story and express it easily.
c. Developing Stage of Cycle 2
fact, the researcher had to remind the students continuously, so that they would not forget to comment on their friends’ work. They were asked to focus on the content,
grammar, and the arrangement of the story. Before they gave comments, the researcher had already written the comments as an example for them. After that, the
students followed the researcher to give some comments using their own words and their own thought. As a result, their responses were so good, it can be seen from the following picture.
Figure 3.1 Students’ comment
After the students received some comments from their friends and the
researcher, they had to review the comments whether it was correct or not. Then, after they reviewed their mistakes, they had to revise their story. So, from the comments given, they knew what to revise and they would not repeat it in the next writing task. In this activity, students’ grammar knowledge also improved well and
d. Reflecting Stage of Cycle 2
In the last meeting, the researcher still reminded the students to rewrite their
story after they gained the comments from other students. Also the researcher kept asking students to give comments on other students’ work. Since the students got
more explanation on grammatical construction, they could minimize their grammatical mistakes on their story. Moreover, most of the students gave comments on other students’ story about grammar. Because of the regular uses, the
students could operate Edmodo well and effectively. The media, for accessing Edmodo such as Android and the internet connection, were prepared well.
The researcher also noticed that the students who had finished and mastered on the use of Edmodo, they helped their friends who had not done yet. Moreover, they also lent their media such as laptop even their Android to their friends.
Furthermore, some students also explored the features provided in Edmodo, one of them asked the researcher whether they could connect to other students in this
school. She also asked about educational games in Edmodo. Actually they could connect to other students as long as they also had an Edmodo account. Then, if they
connect to the teachers around this world, they could find learning games in Edmodo.
In addition, the students also implemented Edmodo for sharing information about teacher’s availability in the school. At that time, there was a teacher who had
a meeting outside the school, so the captain of the class informed the students in
B. To What Extent Edmodo Improves Students’ Writing Skill
In this part the researcher presents to what extent Edmodo improves students’ writing skill from the result of the pre-test and the post-test. Besides, the
researcher combines the questionnaires and interviews result. These data are used
for answering the first research problem.
From the problems it is known that students did not feel interested in learning English because the teacher rarely prepared some media in the learning
process. In fact, Rao (2014) states that if media are introduced in the classroom, it will engage students’ enthusiasm in learning the language and motivate them to
learn more. Besides, when the students learned about a descriptive text, they were difficult to see the pictures provided in the worksheet. It was because the pictures on the worksheet were poor and not clear enough, so the students could not imagine
the picture well. Therefore, the researcher provided them with the media which can confront all the drawbacks happened in the class. That medium was Edmodo.
According to Cauley (n.d), “Edmodo is a site that takes the ideas of a social
network and refines them and to make it appropriate for a classroom.” Thus,
because of its appropriateness for a classroom, the researcher implemented it in her research. Besides, on Edmodo, all kinds of files such as word, images, video, audio and even links can be attached (Thompson, n.d., p. 7). Moreover, he also adds that
Edmodo is great for writing projects (p. 6). Its greatness was proven from the result of the pre-test and post-test done by the researcher. The result of the data was
Then, it is clearly shown that t score was less than 0.05 it means that Edmodo was an effective medium to improve students’ writing skill.
Table 4.1 t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Unequal Variances
Pre-Test Post-Test
Mean 60.4 77.2
t Stat -6.68
In addition, to answer the first formulated problem in this research, the
researcher also combines the results of the questionnaire. The researcher provides the table of the percentages of the questionnaire. In fact, the researcher changed the form of the questionnaire result into a picture. Moreover, the researcher gives
explanations how many percentage each statement gained and what is the integration among the statements. The researcher does not only interpret the
questionnaire in a full explanation, but also does she give the brief explanation to help readers simply understand the content of the questionnaire. However, the original form of the questionnaire is in the appendix 3 which used Bahasa
Indonesia, in the figure 4.1 is the English one.
The first statement of the questionnaire showed that most of students agreed
that learning English using media was more enjoyable and motivated. It was proven from the percentage that 88% of the students agreed and only 9% of the students who disagreed. The others did not give the response toward this statement.
In the second statement there were 80% of the students who agreed and 20% of the students who did not agree about the easiness of accessing internet. Next,
The fourth statement illustrated that almost all the students agreed it was the first time for them to use Edmodo. On the other hand, 9% of the students perceived
that it was not the first time. It means they had used it before. The fifth statement stated that Edmodo was a safe and an interesting learning medium, 94% of the
students responded this statement positively. Almost all of them agreed and only 6% of the students who did not have the same idea with them.
Furthermore, only 76% of the students who agreed that Edmodo could be
accessed easily and 24% of the students disagreed with that. Moreover, the students considered some advantages of Edmodo like they could discuss the learning
materials with the teacher and other students, when they were not in the class. Their responses were positive, there were 79% of the students who agreed with that statement. However, 21% of the students disagreed that they could discuss the
learning material with the teacher and their friends through Edmodo. The other advantages were that the students could check their score directly after they finished
doing some assignments such as multiple choices, fill in the blanks and short answers. In this statement, the students who agreed were 88% and 12% of the
students who disagreed.
In the ninth statement, the students were not enthusiastic to choose “agree”.
It was shown from the result of the percentage that only 59% of the students who
believed that Edmodo could motivate them to learn English, whereas 41% of the students chose “disagree” and it almost approached half of the students.
80% of the students stated that Edmodo was an effective medium to improve their writing skill and the others (20%) did not agree that it was an effective medium to improve students’ writing skill. Compared to the previous research done by Apriani
(2015), there was only 56.7% of the students believed that Edmodo was an effective
educational website to learn English, especially writing.
Figure 4.1 The questionnaire results
In addition, Thompson (n.d) states that Edmodo was excellent for writing
practice. Then, 79% of the students believed that by giving comments through Edmodo, their writing could improve well especially in writing a narrative text, so
To sum up the results of the questionnaire, it is clearly shown that when the students learned English using a medium, they were more excited and motivated.
Moreover, in this 21st century learning almost all students perceived that they could access internet easily, so it helped some students to do their assignments effectively.
From the various educational websites provided in the internet, this was the first time for the students to use Edmodo and only a few of students who have ever used it before. Even though that was the first time for the students to operate Edmodo,
they viewed that it was a safe and an interesting learning medium.
Furthermore, the students agreed that they could access Edmodo easily. It
also assisted them to have a long distance discussion with their teacher. So, they did not need to come to school or do it in the same room. Even though the students were in the home, they still kept in touch with their teacher easily. Moreover, almost all
students also noticed the easiness of Edmodo. It was seen when they could check their score directly after they finished doing their assignments. As a result, it
motivated the half of students to learn English more and Edmodo also aided almost all students in developing their writing skill.
In addition, because of other students’ comment on their writing, it made
them improve their writing better. Therefore, Edmodo was an effective medium for the eighth grade students of SMPN 1 Yogyakarta to improve their writing skill.
Combining with the results of the interview, one of the interviewees said that Edmodo was effective, if all the media such as laptop/computer and internet
