Table of Contents

Does Digital Literacy Provide Evidence for Iranian EFL Learners’ Cooperative Learning in Online Classrooms

Introduction:

Technologycan revolutionize how members of cooperative groups interact and work with others. Since digital literacy and cooperative skills are necessary for teachers’ success and students’ achievement, the current research aimed to find the relationship between English as a foreign language (EFL)learners’ digital literacy and their attitude towardscooperative learningin online classes.Methodology:The present researchfollowed a quantitative study using a correlational research design to investigate the relationship between Iranian EFL learners’ digital literacy and their attitudes toward cooperative learning in online classrooms. In this study, 210 participants,who were all Iranian EFL students in different fields of study and from different cities,were invited to participate. They were from both genders and of different ages. For data collection, the researcher used a Google form link sent via social media and students were asked to completethe questionnaires online. The responses from participants were collected and analyzed using SPSS. Mean, standard deviation, multiple linear regression, and independent samplest-tests were run to analyze the obtained data and check whether the results were significant. Results:The findingsof the study indicateda significant relationship between the two variables,meaning thatlearners could learn and collaborate better with technology. Besides, the study resultsshowed that the second component of digital literacy (technical dimension), as the best predictor, significantly predicteda 34% variance in learners’ attitudes toward cooperativelearning. Moreover,there was no significant difference between men and women in digital literacy and their attitudestoward cooperativelearning. Conclusion:The results of this study indicated that the participants had a favorable view of using digital literacy in their attitude toward cooperative learning.Therefore, there is a need to change the English classroom curriculum and employ a proper syllabusto integrate digital literacy.

1. Introduction:

All over the world, particularly in educational settings, people are cooperating on many different ideas and activities. However, the rapid spread of the COVID-2019 pandemic in the early 2020s has made a challenge for the entire educational environment. Thus, the need to use technology and online tools for communication and education has increased. This growth of technology use among educators leads to the advancement of the digital era. Accordingly, digital literacy (DL), a term that emerged as literacy through technology, has been noticed by researchers and educators since learners and teachers need to develop a kind of DL to use it effectively in classrooms (Ferrari, 2012). Digital technology is now used by students to accomplish a wide variety of tasks. Students can send and receive emails, read e-books and online content, participate in online academic discussions, and use learning management systems (Kim & Choi, 2018). The concept of DLhas become related to many fields, from education to health sciences, law, banking, commerce, and media, depending on the developments in the internet and mobile applications (McDougall et al., 2018)….

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