We consider a preferential cluster growth in a one-dimensional stochastic model describing the dynamics of a binary chain with long-range memory. The model is driven by data corresponding to emotional patterns observed during online communities' discussions. The system undergoes a dynamical phase transition. For low values of the preference exponent, both states are observed during the string e...

The utilization of social media material in journalistic workflows is increasing, demanding automated methods for the identification of misand disinformation. Since textual contradiction across social media posts can be a signal of rumorousness, we seek to model how claims in Twitter posts are being textually contradicted. We identify two different contexts in which contradiction emerges: its b...

The Maryland Electronic Learning Community (MELC) is part of the Baltimore Learning Community, a Challenge Grant project funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Created as a partnership between the Baltimore City Public Schools, the University of Maryland, and corporate and public sponsors, MELC was designed to investigate how an electronic learning community could be created around the dev...

We use fine-grained longitudinal data of user activities in a leading enterprise software vendor’s Internet-enabled community network to explore knowledge contribution and exchange patterns among countries. We measure knowledge contribution using data on 1.8 million forum discussion threads involving more than 276,000 active users from 224 countries over the period of 2004 2010. We find that a ...

In this paper, we highlight a concern with using online discussion for learning. We argue that there is a lack of technological support for the development of personalised knowledge representation for most online discussion forums. Analyses of existing discussion forums suggest that there is a range of collective knowledge representation mechanisms which support a group or a community of learne...

A number of software environments have been developed as media to support collaborative knowledge building, typically featuring a Web-based threaded discussion facility. We have recently developed such a system, known as WEBGUIDE. The distinctive feature of this system is support for structuring collaboration and knowledge construction with personal, group and comparison perspectives. While pil...

The aim of the current study was to investigate whether L2 dialogue shadowing practice would have an effect on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ conversation ability. For this purpose, 30 Iranian intermediate EFL learners at Padideh language center participated in the experiment of the study. The participants were divided into two groups of 15 who were assigned to the experimental and co...

Designing appropriate materials and activities to enhance vocabulary learning is one of the primary goals of language courses. Among the claims about efficient pedagogical tasks is the Involvement Load Hypothesis (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001) according to which vocabulary development is contingent on the amount of cognitive process a task involves. Building on the previous research on this hypothes...

Organization-bounded online communities compete as well as collaborate regarding valued member resources. Membership overlap creates competition amongst communities because their overlapping members must choose where to allocate their limited time. But members also collaborate across communities in inter-community discussion threads to tackle common problems together. This paper examines how me...

This paper uses a short 'Christmas fairy-story for oncologists' sent by Christopher Andrewes with a 1935 letter to Peyton Rous as the centrepiece of a reflection on the state of knowledge and speculation about the viral aetiology of cancer in the 1930s. Although explicitly not intended for public circulation at the time, the fairy-story merits publication for its significance in the history of ...