Group Three’s posts were engaging and interesting this week after analyzing the Horizon Report and Hsu text and looking more deeply into the cognitive processes that are enabled by Web 2.0 technologies.

Rachel makes a connection to the Hsu text that groups tagging into the knowledge construction process category. She suggests a free iOS app (mGeo) that allows users to share information that can be saved and tagged to a geographical location. A part of the reading that stood out to Rachel was the recommendations for implementation that Hsu outlined. She plans on exploring Edmodo (a social learning platform commonly thought of as the facebook of schools) to create a discussion forum that will be a part of a course that will begin in September 2013 via iTunes U called “The Heart of Teaching: Philosophical Foundations”. She will become familiar and research this Web 2.0 tool, which was one recommendation for implementation featured. Rachel is the instructional designer for this open course. A few of the other recommendations that Rachel highlighted were “starting small and being realistic”, “providing scaffolding” when introducing a new tool, and “making it a big deal” for students.

Although Rachel finds the table on page 357 of cognitive processes enabled by Web 2.0 technologies to be helpful, Karen believes the table may limit the technologies teachers use if they’re looking to involve a specific cognitive process. EunSung was able to reflect on teaching strategies used in the past when looking at the table.

Karen, being a media specialist, believes that comfort and familiarity with emerging technologies is most important when it comes to the implementation of Web 2.0 tools. She recommends mobile uses as a starting point for teachers who aren’t ready for more advanced web-based tools. Karen shares that tagging, blogging, and using wikispaces are three great tools that can be used by teachers with relatively little experience. She also explains that hands-on practice will help her teachers become comfortable and confident.

EunSung believes the ability to classify similar topics and share viewpoints are two of the reasons that make Web 2.0 technologies appealing for users. EunSung shares that through experience, although they see the many benefits, students prefer face-to-face interaction and believe it takes longer to use Web 2.0 tools. In the post this week, EunSung concludes that it would be time-consuming for teachers to track the cognitive processes that their students are using. EunSung says it would be challenging for elementary aged students to collaborate using these tools even with appropriate scaffolding due to the critical thinking, evaluating, and analyzing skills that are necessary.

Our group as a whole believes that teachers need to provide scaffolding and to invest time to learn and become comfortable with Web 2.0 tools before implementation should occur. EunSung sees potential for learners to develop critical-thinking skills through the use of these tools.

Thanks everyone for the posts and comments that lead to great discussions. Have a great week.