Virtual Collaboration
From ElateWiki
Virtual collaboration refers to the cooperative work between people using technology mediation to mitigate the physical distances. Virtual collaboration occurs around shared learning; brainstorming; problem-solving; co-design; modeling; simulations, and professional relationship maintenance.
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[edit] Technologies Used in Virtual Collaborations
Lean-channel communications involve the use of email systems and electronic mailing lists. There may be more complex technologies such as Web 2.0 social technologies like wikis, blogs, and video logs. Learning / course management systems (L/CMSes) and virtual worlds may also offer environments for collaborations--particularly shared long-term work, social simulations, and designed spaces. Mixed reality spaces, which combine real-world and virtual information, may also be used for collaborations. These involve tabletop systems that project images onto tabletops and walls, or have built-in touch-sensitive screens in tables.
Specific constructed spaces may also be used for particular types of virtual collaborations for specific customized work. The above technologies are often used for a variety of different collaboration types.
[edit] Features of Collaborative Technologies
Collaborative technologies used in virtual collaborations need to achieve a range of functions. These technologies need to represent individual presences and group co-presences. There must be ways to communicate—usually asynchronously and synchronously. There need to be ways to collaborate around texts and visuals. Also, there should be decision-making structures. Many systems also support the management of projects, in terms of budgets, role definitions, and grant reporting. Some systems enable annotation and critique.
[edit] General Phases of Virtual Teaming Work
The various technologies, in combination, need to offer various collaborative enablements for the shared work. The following conceptualization considers a range of steps:
1. Icebreakers and introductions
2. Oversight, record-keeping, and orchestration
3. Work parameter and objective definitions
4. Role definitions
5. Specific tasking
6. Standards setting
7. Resource distributions
8. Design and prototyping
9. Decision-making
10. Development
11. Review
12. Launch
Collaborative work may involve local and distance team members. The virtual team life cycle may range from the short-term to the long-term. Designs may be individual ones, dyadic ones, to full-team ones. The various team members may have varying access to different levels of information.
[edit] Underlying Theories
A range of pedagogical theories affect the concept of virtual teaming work. Active learning focuses on the need for hands-on experiential learning for deep transfer. Situated cognition suggests the importance of learning in context, a context which may be virtually created. Constructivism suggests that learning is created in an individual's mind and experience and is enhanced through social interactions. Constructivism focuses on the social interactions that enhance creativity and learning. Communities of practice (CoP) describe the enhancement of work through interactions between practitioners in a field. Collaborative inquiry focuses on the values in problem-based and project-based learning.
Distributed cognition focuses on human learning over distance and space. Various research on information modeling and visualizations show how knowledge and data may be represented in various digital structures and visuals. There's research on virtual teaming, virtual team creativity, and computer supported collaborative work (CSCW). These and a range of other theories shed light on the work of virtual teams.
[edit] Types of Virtual Collaborations in Higher Education
A range of work may be done through virtual collaborations in higher education. Learners may work in collaborative groups to do the following (and more):
research topics;
seek problems to solutions;
co-author presentations and papers;
co-edit writings;
provide peer critiques;
share digital files (photos, visuals, videos, audio files, and blueprints);
design processes / re-design processes;
simulate a historical event, mock trials, role plays, virtual plays, and workplace scenarios;
discuss and analyze various issues and case studies;
practice foreign language learning;
simulate social interactions;
coordinate around emergency events;
coordinate work requiring physical intelligence in real "augmented reality" spaces;
and play educational games.
Optimally, the point of virtual collaborations is to enhance both individual performances and work as well as the "collective efficacy" of the entire group (Carroll, Rosson, & Zhou, 2005).
[edit] The Future of Virtual Collaborations
Future virtual collaborations may be much more natural, through the use of "smart" environments and wearable computing. Some researchers suggest less intrusive technologies (Pingali & Sukaviriya, 2003). There may be more combined real-world and immersive world collaborations as if they were co-located (Morde, Hou, Ganapathy, Correa, Krebs, & Rabiner, 2004).
[edit] See Also
[edit] References
Carroll, J.M., Rosson, M.B., & Zhou, J. (2005). Collective efficacy as a measure of community. CHI 2005. Portland, Oregon, USA. ACM. 1 – 10.
Hai-Jew, S. (2009). “Virtual Collaboration: Applied Projects and Tools.” Presentation. Instructional Design Technology Roundtable.
Morde, A., Hou, J., Ganapathy, S.K., Correa, C., Krebs, A., & Rabiner, L. (2004). Collaboration in parallel worlds. ICMI ‘04: State College, Pennsylvania, USA. ACM. 333 – 334.
Pingali, G., & Sukaviriya, N. (2003). Augmented collaborative spaces. Conference ’03: Berkeley, California, USA. ACM. 13 – 20.