{"id":692238,"date":"2020-09-29T11:39:49","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T18:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-blog-post&p=692238"},"modified":"2020-09-29T11:39:49","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T18:39:49","slug":"technology-and-the-evolution-of-group-behaviors","status":"publish","type":"msr-blog-post","link":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/articles\/technology-and-the-evolution-of-group-behaviors\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology and the evolution of group behaviors"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jonathan Grudin (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Much has been written about the current climate of extended work-from-home and remote learning and its impact on various populations, from information workers and IT admins to parents, teachers, and students. My field of study focuses on the impact on students, and I am intrigued by how we, as technology providers, can best support those working and learning from home.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve discovered some advantages of staying home, such as no more commutes and searches for open conference rooms; less need for costly office space and services; the ability to disable video, and wear pajamas on a call; turning to multitasking when meetings lag.<\/p>\n

If anything pulls us back to offices it could be the opportunity for real-time, face-to-face interaction\u2014the way our ancestors interacted for millions of years. People are livelier in person. We have informal conversations before and after meetings, lunch with teammates and coffee with others, excited announcements by colleagues, family pictures, overheard conversations, catching people when they\u2019re free, after-work socializing. Those conversations have value just in the sense of community they provide.<\/p>\n

How much can teleconferencing replace? <\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cTogether mode\u201d in Teams is a creative first step. One of my first experiments in Microsoft Research compared four people engaged in the same game in two settings: together in a room, and in private rooms viewing other participants on three displays. Participants enjoyed the game as much when connected by displays, but their faces were far less expressive. We were not sure why, but deadpan faces don\u2019t let us benefit from seeing reactions.<\/p>\n

Finding ways for people to provide emotional feedback within their groups is important; an initial step in that direction has occurred with the Reflect messaging extension for Teams<\/a>. In the education space, COVID-19 brought remote student isolation, stress, and disengagement. Whether a student is motivated by competition, collaboration, or talking between classes, they rely on the school bubble for support. Short duration, low-pressure group assignments or activities can help address the gap here.<\/p>\n

In small groups, even working remotely, students can inspire and learn from each other. They can confidently approach a remote teacher with a question when none of them could answer.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, what we have seen at least initially is that group assignments declined in remote education, for several reasons: Teachers and students felt stressed, equity issues were voiced, and some feared unmonitored, online bullying, or inappropriate conversation on school systems. Researchers on my extended team are looking at these and other issues and how they can be addressed within the platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Could our reliance on face-to-face interaction be diminishing over time? <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Perhaps, although it has been part of our social nature. My family saw the power of instinctive group behaviors when we volunteered in a primate center in South Africa. Our task was to build troops of baboons, vervets, and other species that had been individually orphaned. They needed to be released into the wild as a functioning troop because an individual primate won\u2019t survive. That\u2019s because the troop forages collaboratively, and it responds to predators by sounding an alarm and scattering or mobbing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Most surprising, we saw astonishing inconsistencies in behavior. When temporarily alone, young primates tried things that they never did when they were close to peers and \u201calpha adults\u201d\u2014in this case, us volunteers.<\/p>\n

Humans differ, of course, but our social nature was shaped in similar contexts over millennia. The instinctive behaviors of young primates can be seen reflected in the behaviors of troops of students surrounding alpha teachers. The young seek guidance and pay attention to supervision. Their sense of security is tied to their trust in the alpha leader. I see how important it is for society to foster respect for teachers.<\/p>\n

Technology facilitates independence<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As we age, different behaviors and greater independence emerge. Technology is pulling us away from the long-term, geography-based communities that our ancestors trusted to keep themselves safe, and that could be OK. Sometimes it\u2019s fine for long-held constructs to fade away: As an example, Microsoft\u2019s workforce and company culture have thrived despite the discontinuation of the previously long-held traditions such as the annual company meeting, summer picnic, and holiday parties as the workforce expanded and aged.<\/p>\n

Yet while older populations might feel more independent, anxiety and depression are on the rise in adults and children. When an alpha adult tells kids, \u201cthe jobs that will be available to you don\u2019t exist today,\u201d there is a risk it will be heard deep in their primate brain as \u201cwe\u2019ll release you into the wild on our own.\u201d With that in mind, researchers are considering how we can foster a sense of security and connectedness for young learners while allowing for growing independence as people (and technologies) mature.<\/p>\n

Technology has drawbacks, but the benefits can outweigh them. With remote conferencing, we are not in the same room with colleagues, but we can communicate with those who are located too far away to see daily. We can quickly find resources for help or attend a support group with people facing similar challenges. In the long term, robotic assistants may provide a sense of connection and conversation for the most isolated individuals.<\/p>\n

I believe that what we\u2019re seeing now is the evolution of social interaction, influenced by technology, and supercharged by the sudden, prolonged need to learn and work remotely. As a researcher, this is a very exciting time to examine how best to support our changing needs as people, technology, and societal constructs evolve simultaneously.<\/p>\n

How has remote work impacted your daily operations? Do you miss face-to-face interactions with your colleagues? Let us know! Tweet us @MicrosoftRI (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> or like us on Facebook (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> and join the conversation.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n

Jonathan Grudin is a Principal Design Researcher who is currently studying the use of technology in education, K-12 and higher education, and contributing to applications to support them. In 2017, he published “<\/em>From Tool to Partner: The Evolution of Human-Computer Interaction” where he traced<\/em> the history of human-computer interaction across several fields and concluded that we can benefit by considering the technologies that we design as collaborators, albeit not equal partners. By giving the technologies more credit, humans can see this as an opportunity and take on the responsibility for seeing that they are better.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While technology has helped fill in the gaps that remote work and distance learning have created, humans still crave face-to-face interactions, just like their ancient ancestors. Informed by his time studying and observing primates, our author wonders when, and if, the workforce will return to physical offices and classrooms. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39057,"featured_media":695388,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr-content-parent":616842,"msr_hide_image_in_river":0,"footnotes":""},"research-area":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[],"class_list":["post-692238","msr-blog-post","type-msr-blog-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","msr-locale-en_us"],"msr_assoc_parent":{"id":616842,"type":"group"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-blog-post\/692238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-blog-post"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-blog-post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39057"}],"version-history":[{"count":60,"href":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-blog-post\/692238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":695394,"href":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-blog-post\/692238\/revisions\/695394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=692238"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=692238"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=692238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}