Last week my group and I had a meeting involving the work we had to do for our final project for this class. We met in Uris library in one of the computer labs. Two of the three of us brought our own lap tops. We also used a computer that had double screens so we could open up multiple documents and view them at the same time. We each opened up a google document on the computer and on our laptops so we could each edit the document that we were creating.
One issue that I found we had was dealing with the display angle/orientation. Since the desktop computer we were using had two screens, on screen had the google document open and the other screen had any other documents from blackboard that we needed. On our individual laptops we just had the google document open, so when we wanted to look at a blackboard document we all had to gather around that computer screen, which at times was a little hard and I found that the two people on the sides were stretching to see the screen. Another issue was a coordination issue, specifically the fact that we were in a public space. We were in a fairly small computer lab and though there were no signs saying to be quiet, I felt as if I were speaking too loudly and like everyone around me could hear my conversation. I didn’t know if I was being rude or if this was okay because I didn’t want to disturb the work others were doing. A third issue was the interaction techniques. Only one person could control the desktop computer, so they were in charge of opening a google document and any other documents we needed. In our case, that wasn’t necessarily a negative, however, because me and my other group members had laptops.
Overall, working in a single display was beneficial for us because two members had laptops and the other member could control the desktop. We also had a google document open which allowed each of us to contribute though we were on different computers.
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Sounds like a familiar scenario, Jeanette. :)
ReplyDeleteI found that in that meeting, the two screens and their ability to rotate on their anchor point really helped with display angle and orientation, and I, specifically, was using the double screens so I could see it at any point, but I understand why you two might have trouble seeing it.
The quiet/loud issue might not be a problem that's due to the shared screens, but rather of that specific environment itself, though. I feel that using separate computers as we did, however, really helped us with issues of "territory." We didn't have to crowd around the same screen, and had space on our own to work individually and switch from personal to group task, as mentioned by Scott et al.