The work-reflection-learning cycle - Department of Computer and ...

Example 1.
Excerpt from an IM log illustrating conversation over ongoing, distributed debugging
work among the students Dave and Chuck. Translated from Norwegian by the author.
In sum, the open IM window substituting face-to-face communication in cooperative development work
among the two students provides both workspace awareness (Gutwin and Greenberg 2002) and social
awareness to the parties. As a note, we may add that Chuck and Dave‟s team delivered an outstanding
project result.
4.2 Use of instant messaging in collaboration with external stakeholders
Generally, we see that when team and stakeholder communicate over IM, it is successful for quick and
informal exchanges. Example 2 shows a case of this in the form of an IM exchange between a team and a
supervisor. The chat takes place during work hours, lasts for 1.5 minutes and addresses an upcoming
project delivery. The conversation takes up on previous conversation on what is to be handed in by the
team. Besides answering Michael‟s initial question whether the activity plan for the last two-week period
is to be delivered, Thomas (the supervisor) makes sure that the team remembers to hand in both the
original plan and a revised version showing the actual work done. Michael informs that the team is going
to revise the delivery document internally and send the final version during the same evening, which
Thomas accepts. The exchange can be seen as efficient, friendly, informal and task-oriented, and reveals
an accommodating attitude on part of the supervisor.
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