{"id":30,"date":"2012-03-06T17:28:59","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T22:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.virtualeteams.com\/vet2011\/?page_id=30"},"modified":"2020-04-20T11:43:42","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T16:43:42","slug":"technology","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.virtualeteams.com\/vet2011\/technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Using Internet-based services to enable Virtual Teams and Blended Learning<\/strong><\/p>\n

The explosion in the development of powerful new computer-based and Internet-based tools and technologies in recent years has enabled organizations to successfully virtualize their teams and expand traditional learning approaches into Blended Learning systems which feature Virtual Classrooms.<\/p>\n

We can categorize team collaboration and training as falling into four different quadrants as depicted in the diagram below.\u00a0 They are based on the dimensions of Time<\/strong> (participants are communicating at the same time or \u201csynchronously\u201d or at different times or \u201casynchronously\u201d) and Place<\/strong> (participants are physically present in the same location or at different locations such as in the next office or across the globe)<\/p>\n

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Same place \u2013 same time<\/strong><\/p>\n

Teams have of course been collaborating and training in the same space at the same time for millenniums.\u00a0 Today, we do use technology-based tools to help these face-to-face meetings and trainings succeed. Products and services such as \u00a0computer-driven slide presentations, electronic whiteboards and various software systems for agenda management, decision support, polling and brain storming are examples.<\/p>\n

Same place \u2013 different time<\/strong><\/p>\n

Teams living in the same space need to collaborate and share information across time.\u00a0 In the past this was done primarily through paper-based records shared through storage in filing cabinets. Today, teams take advantage of technology-based tools to help store and share information across time.\u00a0 E-mail, calendaring systems and electronic data storage systems were early tools which significantly improved team productivity.<\/p>\n

Different place \u2013 same time<\/strong><\/p>\n

Geographically dispersed teams naturally turn to technology-based tools to allow them to collaborate and train almost as effectively as they can do in person.\u00a0 Texting and instant messaging are also often used as well to communicate small amounts of information quickly.\u00a0 Web-based conferencing tools such as audio conferencing, video conferencing and workspace sharing allow for collaboration experiences which engage most of our senses and approximate a face-to-face meeting reasonably well. \u00a0These same web-based conferencing tools are also great for virtual classroom delivery. Examples of three leading service providers in this area are Adobe Connect<\/a>,\u00a0Webex<\/a>, GoToMeeting<\/a> and ZOOM<\/a> which offer rich online shared environments to support highly interactive collaborative team meetings and virtual classrooms. All of these service providers currently offer permanent free accounts (not trials) for you to explore.<\/p>\n

Different place \u2013 different time<\/strong><\/p>\n

Virtual teams needing to communicate asynchronously can turn to additional technology-based services.<\/p>\n

One of the most popular service offerings are discussion forums and groups which allow the creation of threads of discussions which persist through time and often provide a great source of knowledge to others who can search the archives of messages.\u00a0 Yahoo Groups was an early pioneer in providing such services with millions of groups being formed around the world to focus on topics of specific interest to it steam members.\u00a0 More recently, LinkedIn<\/a>, a pioneer in providing networking services to professionals, has also developed a LinkedIn Groups service offering for networks or teams of people to establish private or public discussion groups. \u00a0For example, the Organizational Development Network (ODNET)<\/a>, an association of OD professionals has established a discussion group with over 11,000 members. \u00a0These discussion group technologies also provide the basis for Social Learning as part of Blended Learning systems by allowing dispersed groups of learners to learn from each other.<\/p>\n

Also available online are more comprehensive collections of support services which provide more complete workspaces for teams to collaborate and train over time.\u00a0 One example is Huddle<\/a> which provides shared calendars, file storage, task management, discussion groups and web-based conferencing services all from a simple desktop interface.<\/p>\n

Which technology service to use?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is often a difficult question to answer as the number of choices is growing at a phenomenal rate and the winners in the marketplace are not always obvious.\u00a0 We at VirtualeTeams can help you select the most appropriate services to meet your needs.<\/p>\n

Contact us<\/a> to explore what we can do for you!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Using Internet-based services to enable Virtual Teams and Blended Learning The explosion in the development of powerful new computer-based and Internet-based tools and technologies in recent years has enabled organizations to successfully virtualize their teams and expand traditional learning approaches … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":70,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"onecolumn-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-30","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virtualeteams.com\/vet2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virtualeteams.com\/vet2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virtualeteams.com\/vet2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virtualeteams.com\/vet2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virtualeteams.com\/vet2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.virtualeteams.com\/vet2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":759,"href":"https:\/\/www.virtualeteams.com\/vet2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30\/revisions\/759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virtualeteams.com\/vet2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}