Remember when your professor said to the classroom that everyone would have to work in groups for the next assignment? A normal response from a classroom of students would be a moan. The professor would then respond how " you have a chance to see what it is like working in the real world." The question I am about to propose is that maybe students and professionals should require training in "virtual group projects". It is sometimes required for people to receive training in team building skills.
But has anyone thought of virtual teamwork skills? It is already hard for people to work together face to face. this article explains how a company who needs to work together online can create a successful team. According to a study in this article, "The Strange Beauty of Virtual Teams", it is more difficult for people to keep focused and on task with virtual groups. If someone is in a virtual group they need to be able to balance their online and offline work accordingly. If they do not, they will affect the rest of the team's project.
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3 comments:
Personally, I disagree with your comment about virtual groups being harder to stay focused. Granted, if the group is formed solely by email or texting, I do agree with you. However, there are endless possibilities out there, such as conferences with Skype or Windows Live Messenger. You can see people and their actions, providing a means to communicate better with them. Also, if something gets off topic, you can express your concern far better than if you were only expressing yourself through email or text.
I understand where you are coming from....I believe that that focus of the group depends on its members and wheter they interact well or not. I do think that virtual teams will work though, they just need to be composed of people that work together and can communicate with one another.
I have to agree that it can be harder to stay focused in a group when you are trying to balance both online and offline lives. Virtual teams have one perk in that you are not having the difficulty of working with everyone schedule to arrange a time to meet.
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