Virtual Environments: Is one life enough?

There was a healthy turnout for class this week, despite the Easter break. The issues affecting voice in SL appear to have been resolved, although some participants were still having difficulty.

John explained that due to an unexpectedly busy period before Easter he had been unable to make arrangements for Sitearm Madonna to join the class this week. Site has frequently presented on teamwork, particularly in the online context. We will try to arrange a visit from him before the end of the semester. In the meantime, John presented the lecture on teamwork based on Site’s slides for Team Building Tips. If you missed the class review the slides and talk about the content with your team partners.

We had an interesting discussion based on our own experiences of team working. We compared that to the theory and put particular emphasis on the fluid nature of collaboration. The stages of team development are not necessarily linear and so teams can move between Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing and back again in almost any order. Similarly, the roles required for a successfully performing team may be taken on by different team members at times. The theory is useful to guide teams as it provides a structure but it must be seen as a useful guide rather than a rigid set of rules.