Tag Archives: Research Articles

Marzano: Reinforcing Effort

This post is part of a series on integrating the McREL research on classroom instruction that works with videoconferencing.

Reinforcing Effort: Generalizations

  1. Not all students realize the importance of believing in effort.
  2. Students can learn to operate from a belief that effort pays off even if they do not initially have this belief.

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Explicitly teach students about the importance of effort.
  2. Have students keep track of their effort and achievement (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 155-156).

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing

This strategy is very sparse for applications to any communications technology. The ideas in the book are for using spreadsheets to help students track their own effort and achievement; and to use data collection (web-based surveys) to help students see how others also put in effort to achieve.

Maybe, the focus should be on what effort students put into preparing for a videoconference. The rubrics and charts on effort and achievement could be applied in this way.

What student effort do we want to reinforce in a videoconference?

  • Asking good questions
  • Effective presentations – speaking slowly & clearly
  • Listening

I’m on a MysteryQuest / MQ USA / HistoryQuest8 week, so that format is in my head. Have you noticed that you don’t have to get students to put forth effort when they are racing to find the answer to the clues presented by the other schools? They are EAGER to figure it out! Is there a way to reinforce that effort?

Celebrating Effort?

One of the examples in the original Marzano book is of a math teacher assigning homework to watch the Olympics and make a note of the stories of how the athletes kept going when it was hard. Could classes share stories (The Little Engine That Could) or examples of effort that they see? Classes could create and share illustrations and results of effort in every day life.

What do you think?

Can you think of another angle to apply this strategy to videoconferencing? Or do you think this one is already too much of a stretch? Please comment! Let’s think out loud together.

References: Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works : research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano: Cooperative Learning

This post is part of a series on integrating the McREL research on classroom instruction that works with videoconferencing.

Cooperative Learning: Generalizations

  1. Organizing groups based on ability levels should be done sparingly.
  2. Cooperative learning groups should be rather small in size.
  3. Cooperative learning should be used consistently and systematically but should not be overused.

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Use a variety of criteria to group students.
  2. Use informal, formal, and base groups.
  3. Keep the groups to a manageable size.
  4. Combine cooperative learning with other classroom structures (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 139-140).

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing

What current ways do you use cooperative learning in videoconferencing?

How can we improve our current practice?

New Ideas

  • Keypals. Interestingly, the technology book includes keypals as part of the examples of using technology with cooperative learning. Two students, paired to email each other. Some of the Read Around the Planet partners continue on with e-pals and follow up connections. One of my teachers did Animal Riddles with TX in March and they are still communicating as e-pals. A focused, structured pen pal program can tie in nicely with videoconferencing to meet each other. Here’s a little clip of our very first pen pal VC in 2000. What should be included to make this a stronger interaction?
  • Videoconference plus multiplayer game?! I wouldn’t have thought this would be practical or possible until I read about Heather’s project of Virtual Reality plus Videoconference. The technology book gives the example of Revolution, a game about the American Revolution. What if students played in groups of 7, with 3 of the students from one class and 3 from the other class? This would be another project to do only with high speed Internet and a 1-to-1 laptop program. The videoconference would be used for real time communication that might be needed between the groups, and also for teacher led processing.

What other ideas do you have? How do you already use cooperative learning in your videoconferences? How can you improve your practice? Please comment!

Reference: Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano: Summarizing and Note Taking

This post is part of a series on integrating the McREL research on classroom instruction that works with videoconferencing.

Summarizing: Generalizations

  1. To effectively summarize, students must delete some information, substitute some information, and keep some information.
  2. To effectively delete, substitute, and keep information, students must analyze the information at a fairly deep level.
  3. Being aware of the explicit structure of information is an aid to summarizing information.

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Teach students the rule-based summarizing strategy.
  2. Use summary frames.
  3. Teach students the reciprocal teaching strategy (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 119-120).

Notetaking: Generalizations

  1. Verbatim note taking is perhaps the least effective way to take notes.
  2. Notes should be considered a work in progress.
  3. Notes should be used as study guides for tests.
  4. The more notes that are taken, the better.

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Give students teacher-prepared notes.
  2. Teach students a variety of note-taking formats.
  3. Use combination notes (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 120).

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing

Do your students ever take notes in a videoconference?

  • MysteryQuest. Kids take notes in the MysteryQuests and all the spin offs. They have a note-taking sheet and try to write down all the clues. However, the way some of the clues come, it’s hard to write down the right information. If students had practice with summarizing, they would be better note-takers in the MysteryQuest. This page on integrating tech in the summarizing and notetaking strategy has a great little handout on the four rules for summarizing.
  • Lest We Forget. This year, I decided to beef up the learning in the Lest We Forget programs. I created a little note-taking worksheet to guide the students listening process. I haven’t seen any classes using it though. Maybe this needs a little more polishing.
  • Content Providers. Every time one of our classes connects to the Columbus Zoo, I see them taking notes. The presenter shows the sheet on the document camera, and students fill in information throughout the program. What a great example of structured note-taking. The instructor has provided a scaffold for the notes, and the students are given opportunity and time to process their new knowledge. What other content providers give students a structured way to take notes? Comment and share some others.

New Ideas

  • Combination Notes. What if students took notes on the other class’ presentation, instead of just listening? They could use the Combination Notes strategy to document facts, a drawing, and their summary. This page has a great sample template. I’m thinking, in particular, of our upper level projects like Eco-Conversations.
  • Sharing and Creating Summary Frames. I’ve always thought it would be neat to get 1-to-1 laptop classes together via videoconference. But what could they do that would be a logical way to use the laptops during the VC? What if, again, students were presenting to each other, but the other class was taking notes. They could use one of the Summary Frames formats. After one class presented, a couple students could volunteer to bring up their laptop and show the summary frame they created. What a great way to review and also check for understanding! More summary frame templates on this page.

Today my brain is excited about the possibilities of professional development and improved teaching practice that can happen in classroom-to-classroom collaborations. Just imagine how two teachers could improve their practice working together!

Did this post inspire any new ideas or thoughts for you? Please comment.

Reference: Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano: Nonlinguistic Representation

This post is part of a series on integrating the McREL research on classroom instruction that works with videoconferencing.

Nonlinguistic Representation: Generalizations

  1. A variety of activities produce nonlinguistic representation.
  2. The purpose of nonlinguistic representation is to elaborate on knowledge.

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Use graphic organizers to represent knowledge.
  2. Have students create physical models of the knowledge.
  3. Have students generate mental pictures of the knowledge they are learning.
  4. Use pictures or pictographs to represent knowledge.
  5. Have students engage in kinesthetic activities representing the knowledge (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 86-87).

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing

This is the fun strategy, because it fits most easily with a visual communication medium. It also fits a progression of levels of interaction.

  • Share student nonlinguistic representations of data. We tried this out for the first time this school year with the TWICE We the Kids project. Students share drawings or skits representing the phrases of the constitution preamble. So classes can share/present to each other: graphic organizers, physical models, pictures, pictographs, and kinesthetic activities such as dance (watch the video on irregular verbs) and many more listed here such as acting out the states of matter. See also this musical drama on convection & hailstorms and Dance of the Water Molecule. See also Interdisciplinary Learning Through Dance and Canadian Learning Through the Arts lesson plans.
  • Mystery-Motions! What if kids could act out different concepts and the other class tried to guess? i.e. the states of matter. Weather patterns. Obviously the classes would need shared vocabulary and knowledge. Wouldn’t this be a great activity in a language exchange?
  • Creating Nonlinguistic Representations Together. How could the classes create a non-linguistic representation together? We already talked about creating online before the videoconference. But what about during the VC? Could the classes take a survey and make a pictograph by lining up for favorite pets – and easily see each other’s graphs right away? This would certainly add a new twist to the traditional Q&A at the end of a classroom collaboration.

More Sharing Ideas

  • Graphs & Data. A good chunk of the technology book is spent on graphing data, collecting it with probes, digital microscopes, etc. The current projects booklet has a data collection idea, but I have rarely seen it used. Do we just not collect and process data very often in schools?
  • Creating Videos. Having students create a video of their knowledge is also a nonlinguistic representation. @roxanneglaser has modeled this for us with Texas Twisted Weather and Imagine It!.
  • Sharing Animations. Students could create and share animations with their partner class. Reminds me of Animationish, Sketchy and Frames. Are your students creating these? Why not share them and inspire another class?

Beyond Just Sharing
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut of presenting/sharing what has been done in class. How else can we interact with the partner class?

  • Ask the other class to draw something in response to what you taught/shared with them.
  • Ask the other class to move in response to your class movements.
  • Ask the other class to do a simple movement (stand up, clap) as you quiz them. Try to make the movements represent the knowledge. @sparky1fan, surely you have a good idea or two here!

What other ideas do you have? Did you get any new ideas with this post? Please comment!

Reference: Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano: Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers

This post is part of a series on integrating the McREL research on classroom instruction that works with videoconferencing.

Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers: Generalizations

  1. Cues, questions, and advance organizers should focus on what is important rather than what is unusual.
  2. “Higher-level” questions and advance organizers produce deeper learning than “lower-level” questions and advance organizers.
  3. Advance organizers are most useful with information that is not well organized.
  4. Different types of advance organizers produce different results.
  5. Waiting briefly before accepting responses from students has the effect of increasing the depth of students’ answers.
  6. Questions are effective learning tools even when asked before a learning experience.

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Use expository advance organizers.
  2. Use narrative advance organizers.
  3. Teach students skimming as a form of advance organizer.
  4. Teach students how to use graphic advance organizers.
  5. Use explicit cues.
  6. Ask questions that elicit inferences.
  7. Ask analytic questions (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 74).

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing

Cues, Questions and Advanced Organizers are primarily again about accessing prior knowledge. Cues and questions help students see what’s coming next so they can begin connecting it to their current knowledge. These are asked by the teacher. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about getting student questions to a higher level quality (in ASK & other programs). But that is not what the research on cues & questions is about.

Cues and questions can be used by content providers during the program, and by teachers before & after a program or project. The questions & cues need to tie into the main point of what’s important in the unit.

Cues & Questions Before a VC

  • Giving students an overview of the important content in the upcoming lesson.
  • Using wait time (double the wait time in a VC) to give time for quality answers.
  • Asking higher level questions. I can think of providers who do this well, and others who ask questions that elicit only one-word answers. The Handbook has a nice list of examples of generic inferential questions that can be adapted to your content (p. 270-271).

Possible New Format

Another section is about Analytic Questions. These are questions that analyze errors, construct support, and analyze perspectives. I’m thinking of Eco-Conversations and similar projects that address current issues. What if both classes attempted to answer questions such as:

  • What are the errors in reasoning in this information?
  • How is this information misleading?
  • What is an argument that would support the following claim?
  • Why would someone consider this to be good (or bad or neutral)?
  • What is the reasoning behind his or her perspective?
  • What is an alternative perspective, and what is the reasoning behind it? (Marzano, 2001, CITW, p. 116)

Share Advance Organizers?

I think it would be so interesting and beneficial for students to share their own advance organizers on a topic, but could they be made clearly enough that the other class could read them?

Or what if two classes worked together to create an advance organizer on a topic. It could be created in GoogleDocs as a spreadsheet or table, or an artistic advance organizer in an online collaborative brainstorming or drawing too. Imagine classes with interactive white boards working on the document as a class, and then sharing to see what the other class adds to it. During the videoconference they could discuss the topic or present new information to each other and then add more new knowledge to their organizer.

What do you think? Too much of a stretch? Doable? Please comment.

References: Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano, R. J., Norford, J. S., Paynter, D. E., Pickering, D. J., & Gaddy, B. B. (2001). A handbook for classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works : research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano: Providing Recognition

This post is part of a series on integrating the McREL research on classroom instruction that works with videoconferencing.

Providing Recognition: Generalizations

  1. Rewards do not necessarily have a negative effect on intrinsic motivation.
  2. Reward is most effective when it is contingent on the attainment of some standard of performance.
  3. Abstract symbolic recognition (e.g., praise) is more effective than tangible rewards (e.g., candy, money).

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Personalize recognition.
  2. Use the Pause, Prompt, and Praise strategy.
  3. Use concrete symbols of recognition (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 59-60).

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing

Most of the ideas in this area are on giving students certificates (printed and online), posting exemplary work online, using response systems to give recognition, and giving students recorded audio messages.

Interestingly, videoconferencing is included again as a way to have students communicate with professionals and peers as authentic audiences. The Global WRITeS project was featured as a way for students to perform and judge poetry. I’ve blogged about this project when it was presented at NECC last year. Andrea Israeli blogs about this project too. Students receive both authentic feedback from the poet and peers, as well as getting recognition for work well done.

Other ways that students receive recognition in current programs we do are:

  • Students hearing their names in a videoconference. When the author or expert listens to a student question and then uses their name back, students LOVE it!
  • Complimenting classes. When the facilitator in a project such as MysteryQuest or Monster Match congratulates the class on their monster match or their good note-taking, classes receive recognition.
  • Can you think of any others?

New Ideas

  • Performance Judging. This idea of having students perform and then be judged (using agreed upon criterion) can be used beyond poetry. What else? Dance, music, and speech. How about student created videos on multiple topics, as organized so efficiently by @roxanneglaser with Texas Twisted Weather and Imagine It!
  • Goal sharing. What if students could share, say towards the end of the year, some of their goals and how they accomplished them? Could sharing with another class (authentic audience) how they achieved the goal provide recognition? They could be motivated and inspired by the other class too. Is that too crazy of an idea? What do you think?

What other ideas pop into your head?

Reference: Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano: Providing Feedback

This post is part of a series on integrating the McREL research on classroom instruction that works with videoconferencing.

Providing Feedback: Generalizations

  1. Feedback should be corrective in nature.
  2. Feedback should be timely.
  3. Feedback should be specific to a criterion.
  4. Students can effectively provide some of their own feedback.

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Use criterion-referenced feedback.
  2. Focus feedback on specific types of knowledge.
  3. Use student-led feedback (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 41-42).

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing: Current Practice

Predictably, the technology examples give include comments in Word, classroom response systems, grading software, using web rubrics for criterion referenced feedback, and using games and simulations that provide instant feedback.

What I found surprising was the inclusion of communication software in this section, including “blogs, wikis, email, instant messaging, and videoconferencing” (p. 53). As I read the examples in the book, I thought of these current videoconference programs:

  • ASK Deluxe“, where students blogged two chapters of The Ultimate Gift and gave feedback to each other before the videoconference with the author.
  • Monster Match and all it’s variations are in some ways “feedback” to the students on how well they wrote their description.
  • The instant message example in the book is of students asking questions of their government representative, which we do on a regular basis with our Senator, Representative, as well as veterans and authors in the ASK program.
  • The videoconference example in the book has Spanish students talking to students in Spain, similar to the videoconferences we’ve done with Frank Garcia. In a twist, after the videoconference, students use a blog to give feedback to each other using the other class’ native language.
  • MysteryQuest and all its spin-offs is another way that students get feedback from an audience. They get immediate feedback on the quality of their presentation (how well the other classes can take notes). They get immediate feedback on their research skills as they find out the correct answer.

The main point in this section was the feedback from authentic audiences.

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing: New Ideas

So, how can we beef up the feedback in our videoconferences?

  • Emphasize talking to experts and authors. First, I think we need to continue to emphasize the value of real-time interaction with student-generated questions to authors and experts. I had a long discussion with one of our veterans who wanted to script the videoconference. The value is in the INTERACTION! There is major value to the students in hearing the answer to a question THEY wrote! We can’t forget this. We must continue to make time for it. To plan deliberately for feedback.
  • “Poetry Idol”. I can’t find a blogged entry, but we have had a couple high school poetry performance videoconferences that were stunning. The students performed (not just recited) a favorite poem (theirs or not). The other class rated them, with scores, acting as judges. In another exchange, both classes shared essays with each other, and after each essay, the other class gave specific helpful feedback to the student who just read their essay. Incredibly powerful. If this format could be polished a little more, and both classes used the same criterion-referenced rubric for evaluating work and giving feedback, the students could gain even more from the experience. Students could practice and learn ways to effectively give feedback to their peers.
  • Language Exchange. After watching my classes interact with classes in other languages (primarily Spanish), I believe we can beef up the quality of those interactions. With a little more preparation we can get more than just laughing, giggling, and a little bit of language practice. Students should prepare something to present/share in the language (a story, a skit, a song, their own writing, statements about themselves). As students tend to be nervous and self-conscious, visual cards to read and remind them of their lines would reinforce the vocabulary and usage. Students could also prepare their questions on cards as well. Have you experienced cross-language exchanges? What made them go well? What made them effective?

What do you think? Do any new ideas pop into your brain? Share them and I’ll add them, giving you credit, to the next iteration of the Projects Booklet.

Reference: Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano: Setting Objectives

This post is part of a series on integrating the McREL research on classroom instruction that works with videoconferencing.

Setting Objectives: Generalizations

  1. Setting instructional goals narrows what students focus on.
  2. Teachers should encourage students to personalize the learning goals the teacher has identified for them.
  3. Instructional goals should not be too specific.

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Set learning objectives that are specific but flexible.
  2. Allow students flexibility in personalizing the learning objectives or goals.
  3. Communicate the learning objectives or goals to students and parents.
  4. Contract with students to attain specific learning objectives or goals (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 17-18).

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing

At first glance, it seems this doesn’t really apply to videoconferences. Certainly, I don’t think we can make a project template out of it, do you? Just the same, we can improve our practice. What about these ideas?

  • Have students make a KWL or KWHL chart before a videoconference or a unit with a videoconference included. Make sure it includes what you want the student to learn (your objectives) and what they want to learn (personalizing learning). Student motivation is higher when they set at least some of their own goals.
  • The KWL could create a foundation from which to prepare questions, for ASK programs, asking questions of the other students, Lest We Forget programs, and any program with a content provider who includes a Q&A time.
  • What if, before a videoconference, the two classes created a KWL together using a collaborative drawing/brainstorming tool? Dabbleboard looks cool! Do you think this would work? I’m thinking about Read Around the Planet, learning about each others’ communities, and EcoConversations.
  • Take your state standards and use them to create a rubric for the students on what they will learn from this videoconference.

Share Your Ideas!
So, what do you think? Do you have any other ideas? How do you currently set objectives for students as they prepare for a videoconference?

Reference: Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Creating New Marzano VC Project Templates

As part of my studies, I’m looking in depth at Marzano’s Instructional Strategies That Work. To learn more, I recommend the following books:

As you know, I’ve been sharing/publishing the Planning Kid2Kid Videoconference Projects booklet for the last 3 years. For this summer’s revision, I want to add templates for Marzano’s instructional strategies. As I’ve learned in a workshop on Marzano’s strategies, we as teachers may feel that we’re using that strategy already. However if we can improve and refine our practice of that strategy, we can raise our students’ achievement. So it seems worth our time to consider how we can create videoconference project templates that can refine our use of these instructional strategies.

Note to content providers: To those content providers reading this blog, I encourage you to evaluate your current programs to see how these strategies could also improve your practice!

The 11 Strategies

The Using Technology with Classroom Instruction That Works book reorganizes Marzano’s original nine strategies into eleven. Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback are split in two, and Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition are split in two. In addition, the strategies are reorganized around four guiding questions as follows.

What will students learn?

  • 1. Setting Objectives

Which strategies will provide evidence of student learning?

  • 2. Providing Feedback
  • 3. Providing Recognition

Which strategies will help students acquire and integrate learning?

  • 4. Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers
  • 5. Nonlinguistic Representation
  • 6. Summarizing and Note Taking
  • 7. Cooperative Learning
  • 8. Reinforcing Effort

Which strategies will help students practice, review, and apply learning?

  • 9. Identifying Similarities and Differences
  • 10. Homework and Practice
  • 11. Generating and Testing Hypotheses

Invitation
So as I think about these strategies in the next 11 posts, I encourage you to comment and share your thoughts, ideas you have, and questions that are raised. Let’s create some new ideas together!

Lit Review: Virtual Team Leadership

Lit Review: This is a post in a series focusing on the research studies on videoconferencing.

Hambley, L. A. (2005). Virtual team leadership: The effects of leadership style and communication medium on team interaction styles and outcomes. Retrieved from ProQuest Digital Dissertation. (AAT NR05638)

Summary

This dissertation has a mixed-methods design. The quantitative study compared transformational and transactional leadership against teams meeting face to face, videoconference and via chat. No significant difference was found on leadership styles. Constructive interaction score was higher in face to face than VC and chat teams, but not significantly higher in VC than chat teams. In addition, team cohesion scoares were higher in face that face and videoconference than chat, but not significantly higher in VC than chat.

The quantitative study was done with 228 undergraduate students who had a mean of 4 years of full time work experience and 4 years of part time experience. The Meeting Effectiveness Situation was the simulation used to measure task performance.

The qualitative part of the study consisted of interviews with nine virtual team leaders and members in the actual workplace.

Definitions

A virtual team is not a learning network, community of practice, or web-based interest group. It is a group with specific tasks, shared outcomes and interdependency. Jazz facilitator teams certainly fit this definition.

Semi-virtual teams may have a local subgroup as well as remote team members. These groups can have the increased challenge of in-group and out-group issues. I wonder if some Jazz facilitators sometimes are an in-group as we’ve all seen each other face to face, whereas others may feel more out-group because they haven’t been with us as long or we’ve never seen them face to face?

Virtual teams differ on four dimensions (Bell & Kozlowski, 2002):

  • temporal distribution – the degree to which the team coversw boundaries of space and time
  • boundary spanning – the degree to which the team spans varies organizational and cultural boundaries
  • lifecycle – short term to long term
  • member roles – keeping the same role or members holding multiple roles

Virtual teams tend to focus less on relationship building, which can lead to less effective teams (p. 10).

Other Theories

Media Synchronicity Theory: Asynchronous communication is better for less complex tasks which require reflection and minimal collaboration. Synchronous is better for tasks that are more complex and require interdependence and feedback.

Media Richness Theory:  Explains how different communication media affect task performance. Videoconferencing is a richer medium than text chat.

Qualitative Results

The interviewees felt that a face to face kick-off is important for a virtual team. “Face to face meetings have important impacts such as facilitating the development of trust, comfort level, and rapport” (p. 87). They thought that virtual teams should meet face to face once in a while if at all possible.

Virtual team leaders need to be able to build a virtual team – facilitate trust building, establishing the vision etc. The team leader should have training in leading a virtual team and should make sure everyone feels a part. They should have very good facilitation skills. They should invest time in getting to know the followers. They should have good project management skills. They should be able to know what to do if the technology fails. I’m thinking that the best modeling of this that I have seen has been by Roxanne.

The qualitative section is rich with tips for effective leadership in virtual teams, including addressing challenges, the use of the phone and email, and tips for the videoconference.

Question for you…

Are you on any virtual teams? How do they work? Do you see good leadership or not-so-much? What makes it work well? Do you use VC? Does it work well? Feel free to comment….