Last week, I was working on a group project for class. There were three of us in the group and we had to share one laptop to type the document. All of us being in one place helped make several aspects of communication easier. We had previously worked in a distributed fashion, with worse results.
One immediate benefit of this setup was the ability to switch between tasks seamlessly. As Scott, et al note, users transition between different activities in a fluid manner. Sharing the same screen allowed us to all sit at the same table and brainstorm what needed to be done. One of us remembered that we had forgotten a specific detail of the assignment, so we were able to instantly look it up online. Putting the typing on hold to look up the information was as easy as could be.
Also, as the Scott paper noted, this setup provides for the ability to use physical objects. Our project involved a product design, so it was very easy to simply sketch our ideas and show each other. In a distributed environment, communicating these ideas as efficiently and effectively would have been difficult. The fact that we were co-located and forced to be near each other gave us extra tools, even if in this case it was just a sketch on a scrap sheet of paper.
Finally, we were able to use the single display to switch between personal and group work. Each of us was required to write one part of the document, and then we put it all together. We were able to each work on and improve our own submissions, while still being in a position to help the overall group goal. It was simple to answer any questions that came up or to offer suggestions for the project as a whole, while still being able to focus on our individual tasks.
Some aspects could be improved however. The co-location made it so that once we got off task, it was tempting to stay that way. We were able to make small talk while working, but this sometimes led to surfing Youtube and checking sports scores. The co-location led to a more free-flowing conversation, which definitely caused us to be less efficient than we could have been. With a little more conscious effort to remain focused on the task, the experience could have been much improved. However, the advantages of this set up far outweighed the negatives, and we were able to complete our work (and did a good job) in a short amount of time.
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I agreed with your post; when you have physical objects (like sketches), distributed sharing can actually be a disadvantage. Unless they're digital, you can't really upload them. Having everyone physically look at it can help promote feedback. It also allows people to make changes and suggestions. I think sharing one laptop can also keep people focused on the task. If everyone has their own laptop, people usually wind up doing their own thing. But only having one laptop kind of prevents that because everyone should be looking at the same thing. However, this might not work if the group was larger.
ReplyDeleteI was also going to do my post on collaborating to create the final report for the same class. However, my group partner and I were not co-located. In fact, for the most part, we worked on the report when he was in New York and I was in New Jersey. There were many problems that we faced that you probably did not have to face with your group. You listed some good examples that were true for us. For example, every time one of us made an edit, we had to send an email with the updated word document, then point out the specific changes we made. It would have been much easier to work on this together.
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