Author Insights

Trainers and Technology

Jon Dyson, co-author of Working Virtually from the award-winning
International Management English series, discusses the practicalities for
trainers of using technology for virtual communication simulation.

Technology for virtual communication

As a trainer who started teaching in the early 1980s, I am probably within the demographic
of 'digital immigrant' as opposed to digital native. Nevertheless, extending the analogy,
over the last half decade, I have worked at gaining insight into this tech-culture and have
adapted to the local norms and customs as far as my capabilities permit. Adapting our
mindset and developing the capability to use different kinds of technology as channels of
virtual communication is a critical factor in our effectiveness as trainers in this area. This
article will look at some of the practicalities and implications of using technology for virtual
communication in the settings we find ourselves as professional English trainers.
Examples of the different kinds of hardware we trainers might come across in virtual
communication environments are laptops, iPads, android tablets, smartphones and
the 'phablet' - a hybrid phone/tablet model combining the portability of a phone with the
functionalities and larger screen size of a tablet. These hardware/software models are
already rendering the PC obsolete and seems destined to become the dominant mode of
business communication.

Managing a conference call simulation

All of the technologies mentioned above can be used to access virtual meetings and
presentation platforms such as webex and we trainers need to be at least minimally techsavvy to manage the hardware and software in order to set up a virtual communication
simulation activity. Many trainers comment about the potential pitfalls of setting up and
managing such simulations, but knowledge and contingency planning can lead to greater
control and confidence. Lets take a brief look at some of the logistics to consider when
setting up a conference call simulation activity. What follows is an example from my own
experience.
The trainer logs in and schedules a meeting by setting up time, name of meeting, and an
invitation is sent to the 6 participants via email (I use the same Gmail account for all
participants it isnt actually necessary to use their own email accounts). The meeting
schedule appears on the screen and a unique access number (along with a dial-in number) is

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generated. These are confirmed to you onscreen, so, you need to know where to look for
these numbers, just in case you or the participants wont have access to a PC or laptop.
Of the 6 participants two have iPads, one has a company phone, one has an iPhone and the
other two have android phones. It is unlikely you have the space to put each learner in a
separate room with a computer terminal, headphones or/and speakers and a microphone.
So, each person needs to download the free app, which is available on multiple platforms
(and you need to know that the app you want to use is available to all). However one person
says they are not allowed to download apps onto their company phone, so the alternative is
to access the toll-free dial-in number to join this particular meeting, and, when prompted,
enter the unique access number mentioned above.
The broadband connection may be a bit unstable, depending on the circumstances, so be
prepared for variable volume and clarity. Even so, participants often ruefully reflect in
feedback, Hmm. That was just like it is at work. In my experience, mobile devices actually
provide a more stable and clear call and if all else fails, they can ring in to the toll-free
number.
Around two hours after the call you can access a recording of the entire conference call, so
the trainers initial task is to trawl through it looking for points of interest to comment on.
You can also send an email link to the recording for learners to stream at a later moment.
You can of course simulate a conference call by simply having the learners go to different
parts of the room and turn their backs on each other. But it looks a bit twentieth-century,
doesn't it? Of course with this approach there is also no recording for the participants to
reflect on and learn from after the event. So what we provide in Working Virtually are
simulated or role-played conference calls that need forethought as to the logistics. This is
what our learners expect if we say we are going to help them perform better in online
meetings, by assessing their performance in a realistic yet controlled environment and
following up with useful feedback.
The above makes the process sound reasonably straightforward. Sometimes, it is not, and
the time spent setting up and administering the call can appear onerous and unnecessary.
But we need to engage in a real way with virtual communication in order to be genuinely
capable of recognising and empathising with the challenges involved. In fact, there is no
reason at all why you shouldnt take part in the call yourself. In many cases, the presence of
a native speaker is more representative of what learners experience in real life. You can
even facilitate the call to provide a reasonable model of good practice and ensure that the
more dominant and confident learners do not monopolise contributions. Taking part is also
an experiential opportunity for the trainer. We put ourselves in the same situation and at
the same level as our learners in fact, I have received some useful feedback on my own
performance from learners on occasions.

Preparing for online presentations

Another area of virtual communication addressed in Working Virtually is online presenting.
Like conference calls, these presentations are becoming very common nowadays, yet they

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can cause considerable discomfort to learners. It is therefore our responsibility as trainers to

offer our learners plentiful opportunities to put this virtual communication skill into
practice.
In Working Virtually, we have focused on different ways to offer simulated opportunities to
practice this skill, for example giving a short personal presentation online as a part of a
virtual team kick-off meeting. However offering such opportunities requires some planning
and preparation beforehand by us trainers, and some time to raise practical questions about
how the participants organisations approach these presentations. For example:

How much training do learners/participants get from their companies on how to use
the software?
Do they learn by trial and error, or adopt a pragmatic approach (need to know
use)?
Would increasing the range of the functionalities they are familiar with improve their
options for communicating effectively?
Do they even need to present this information through this medium? Can it be sent
out as a reference attachment?
Is there a good reason for 10 team members to spend over an hour online listening
to (or watching) ten presentations with 3 to 5 slides each?

The last two bullet points are born out of my feelings of bewilderment at hearing some of
the stories learners tell me about being stuck in online presentations as colleagues drone
through their project updates one-by-one.
It is also necessary for us as trainers to understand from first-hand experience what makes
best practice in the preparation and delivery of visual information for the purpose of online
presentations, and address questions on best practice before carrying out the simulation
activities. For example:

How much text should we use? The same as in a face-to-face presentation? Less?
More?
What design and layout factors need attention? (Font size springs to mind)
How much onscreen information do we expect our viewers to process at once?
Are we going to highlight information as we speak?
Do we want to use animation to introduce elements gradually to control and engage
audience attention? Does our organisation even allow us to customise our slides in
that way?
Are interaction, questioning and directed invitations for participation built into the
presentation?

The answers will clearly depend on context. However, we are living in an age of business
busy- ness and this has implications for our collective attention span and our expectations
when we are interacting with a screen. Looking at a static screen for an extended period of
time is not what people are used to nowadays, so online presentations should reflect this
and make the most of interactivity and use tools which maintain the audiences attention.
Most conference-calling software has functionalities allowing the presenter to annotate and

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highlight elements onscreen, which is just one way we can draw attention to particular parts
of a presentation on screen (when we would simply point in a face-to-face presentation).
In terms of follow up, again conference-calling software allows us to access a recording of
an online presentation in all its glory and I have found this extremely useful for giving
feedback on learners communicative impact. This can be a good example of where the less
accurate learner can come into their own if they have an engaging presentation, and also an
engaging sounding voice and use intonation, stress variation and language rhythm to good
effect. Conversely, a highly accurate learner may realise that their impact is less than
successful if their visual presentation and voice come across as uninteresting/ed and
monotonous.

In conclusion
Working Virtually covers many aspects of communicating from a distance and in several
cases there is a certain degree of crossover between the skills needed by our learners for
face-to-face communication and those needed for virtual communication. However, as this
article has pointed out, using the communication technology needed to simulate real-life
virtual communication can represent challenges for us trainers, as well as fantastic
opportunities. We are on a learning curve too, and the more adept we become at managing
the technology ourselves, the better we can help enhance the virtual communication skills
of our learners.

a person born or brought up before the widespread use of digital technology.

a person born or brought up during the age of digital technology and so familiar with
computers and the Internet from an early age.

Further reading on the subject of virtual communication and virtual teams:

http://www.whereintheworldismyteam.com/the_6_C_framework.cfm
http://virtualteambuilders.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/electronic-communicating-bestpractices/
http://www.leadingvirtually.com/
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Managing_Groups_and_Teams/How_Do_You_Manage_Global
_Virtual_Teams%3F
http://www.guidedinsights.com/articles-guides/

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