¶ … people use the shared group work tools that have emerged as one of the most effective tools in the educational and professional world. The paper explains the practical implication of these tools with real life experiences to evaluate the benefits and limitations of these tools.
The use of shared group work tools have been increasing at a great pace. These group work tools include many of the popular software such as EMS (Electronic Meeting System), WetPaint, GoogleDrive etc. Katherine and Brenda in "Managing Virtual Team" state that the collaborative software involves the joint efforts of people who might not be even working at the same time. Such software helps in working from home and at flexible timings increasing the productivity of the projects. Such software is also called collaborative software which is specifically designed to assist people working together on a common task aiming to achieve a common goal. Such software has completely transformed the way documents are shared and teams carry out their work by providing them a rich media and an easy format. (Katherine, 2011)
Adam Lockwood one of the most renowned Project managers in France have stated that the collaborative software is becoming extremely popular these days because of their functionality. The educational institutions have been greatly benefited from the use of such software. The experts consider that the collaborative software will be taking over the traditional modes of software that were used by the students. The functionality of the software is not limited to the educational institutions as they have been commonly used in the professional organizations as well and are beginning to become an integral part of the information management system of the organizations. Such software possess great advantages and can add to the overall productivity of the organization if they are used in a systematic and professional manner, however they can also result in confusion and lack of teamwork if they are not handled properly. (Lockwood, 2010)
I as a student have been making us of such group work tools which has made my life much easier and saved a lot of time which I can then devote to my other activities apart from studies. I started using such group work tools in my high school and I wish that I had the knowledge of such tools before that because many of the group assignments took several hours and a lot more effort in school because of the absence of technology available making it mandatory that all the group members are physically present at a space at the same time.
All the high school projects were completed with the use of group work tools such as Prezi and GoogleDrive. The use of group work tools helped the group members in communicating without having a physical interaction which allowed us to work in flexible hours and the timings most suited to each other. Once the work of a member was completed it was shared to all members from where the other members could take up his/her work and also evaluate the work by providing them online feedback. The only problem that we had during such group works was that the lack of physical interaction affected the teamwork and did not allow the trust to develop. The brainstorming session online was also not as effective as it is when we are working with each other physically.
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