Thursday, February 24, 2011

Shared public display for F2F team collaboration

Advanced collaboration suite for small groups engaging in F2F collaborative networked learning. Some folks are still sending out series of emails when they can use a shared display to work more efficiently. Discuss issues and make decisions as you go so that everyone stays aligned. Since the work happens on the big public screen, everyone can see exactly what has been done and offer opinions about changing the content in real time. Networked, co-located groups can share and manipulate content on shared public display. All the team’s joint work is done on the big screen, which is driven by the TeamSpot “Host” computer. Rather than huddling around a individual’s computer in a small group setting that only one person controls, anyone in the team can set to, and manipulate content, on the shared public display that no one person owns but everyone can share. A team member can make their content available to the public display or go “off line” to research additional relevant content to enhance their contribution to the group while others work on the public display. Anyone in the group can redirect their own cursor onto the public work surface and work on the Host computer’s display as if their mouse and keyboard were plugged directly into it. Multiple people can even work on the big screen at the same time, each with a uniquely identified cursor. In addition, “save archive” creates artifacts of the group knowledge which is a record which can be studied by all participants and shared as a mobile artifact of the group collaborative learning. I am hopeful that the same software could be shared by virtual groups but it does not appear to be an option at this time. I do believe that the design features evidenced in this package are a step forward. Of course, one will have to consider the overall pricing and implementation of this particular package in relation to individual enterprise needs. For more information on the related products and pricing contact Tidebreak