In spite of the popularity of technologies that facilitate distance learning, institutions still educate students who gather together in shared physical spaces. But now even these traditional settings for learning are more collaborative and technology-rich environments. Qualitative methods in the sociolinguistic tradition allowed me to attend carefully to the vocal and non-vocal interactions of students engaged in a computer supported collaborative authoring assignment. Three research questions guided my inquiry: 1) In what ways did students negotiate roles and responsibilities?; 2) In what ways did students negotiate access to their assignment?; and 3) what was the nature of discourse in computer supported collaborative authoring? I conducted microanalysis of the communication in online discussions and face-to-face discourse throughout an entire semester of one graduate level course entitled The Psychology of Teachers and Teaching. My data revealed that the online discussion forum, physical proximity to the computer during face-to-face collaboration and instructor influence shaped the students’ roles and responsibilities as well as their entry into the assignment. I propose a model illustrating how students negotiate entry into computer supported collaborative authoring assignments and discuss its implications for teaching and learning. / text

The main goal of this study was to investigate whether computer-mediated communication (CMC) intercultural exchange offers the conditions necessary for the development of the sociolinguistic competence of L2 learners. The secondary goal was to provide a description of the characteristics of the exchange as a language practice regarding language learning and cultural contact. Non-native speakers (NNS) of French in British Columbia interacted through computer-mediated communication with native speakers (NS) of French in Quebec over the course of one school semester. The data for this study included the transcripts of text-based chat discussions and of a group forum, and answers to questionnaires and interviews. Drawing on the sociocultural perspective, this study used a qualitative approach to analyze the collected data. The framework used to guide the sociolinguistic inquiry consisted of The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe, 2001). The findings of this study suggest that intercultural CMC exchange offers positive conditions for the development of this competence. NNS were exposed to sociolinguistic variation and made minor changes in their use of sociolinguistic elements, showing that they developed sensitivity to the vernacular style used by NS. In addition, the exchange fostered the creation of a collective meaning that allowed L2 learners to participate in meaningful interactions and to increase their level of confidence. Finally, the exchange allowed participants to experience the dimension of “culture as individual” (Levy, 2007), an aspect of culture that encouraged them to share their personal views on culture and to connect on a personal level with their NS partners.

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that contribute to online collaboration in a web-based course by investigating the impact and the potential of an online learning environment in terms of both the students&#039 / and instructor&rsquo / s perceptions about learner benefits, learner support, motivation, computer mediated communication, and group work. A mixed methods case study design was thought to be appropriate to match the purpose of the study, thus a combination of components normally found in descriptive, case study and qualitative research was used to analyze the data. The study was conducted in the context of &ldquo / CSIT444-Online Web Design&rdquo / , an online course offered by the Institute of Distance Education of East Mediterranean University (EMU) in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. This course was designed and developed by the instructor working at the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology of the Middle East Technical University located in Ankara and carrying out the classes for this course as online for the students at EMU. The participants were the instructor and 209 vocational education last year students, who participated in the course for three successive semesters, at the School of Computing &amp / Technology. In order to explore the perceptions of the students, they were asked to complete a questionnaire at the end of the each semester. Of the 209 participants 175 students ranked their agreement on each twenty eight five-point Likert-type item and 129 of them wrote also their comments about their online learning experience by answering the open-ended item in the questionnaire. Several interviews were conducted with the instructor using the informal conversational interview approach to explore his perceptions through his reflections on his online teaching experience in the web-based course. The perceptual student responses from the questionnaire were analyzed quantitatively. The responses to the open-ended item in the questionnaire and informal interviews were evaluated qualitatively to find out the emerging themes. In addition, the online learning environment offered in the web-based course was examined by using the instructional design framework. This study concluded that both the students and the instructor perceived the online collaborative learning/ experience positively by reporting that it was a beneficial and motivating experience with the availability of group work, CMC, and adequate support structure. Several specific factors that contributed to collaboration via CMC in the web-based course were identified under seven major topics. By considering these factors, it is hoped that the results will yield better solutions in terms of providing meaningful online learning experiences.

“In an ill-structured domain you cannot, by definition, have a pre-compiled schema in your mind for every circumstance and context you may find ... you must be able to flexibly select and arrange knowledge sources to most efficaciously pursue the needs of a given situation.” [57] / In order to interact and collaborate effectively, agents, whether human or software, must be able to communicate through common understandings and compatible conceptualisations. Ontological differences that occur either from pre-existing assumptions or as side-effects of the process of specification are a fundamental obstacle that must be overcome before communication can occur. Similarly, the integration of information from heterogeneous sources is an unsolved problem. Efforts have been made to assist integration, through both methods and mechanisms, but automated integration remains an unachieved goal. Communication and information integration are problems of meaning and interaction, or semantic interoperability. This thesis contributes to the study of semantic interoperability by identifying, developing and evaluating three approaches to the integration of information. These approaches have in common that they are lightweight in nature, pragmatic in philosophy and general in application. / The first work presented is an effort to integrate a massive, formal ontology and knowledge-base with semi-structured, informal heterogeneous information sources via a heuristic-driven, adaptable information agent. The goal of the work was to demonstrate a process by which task-specific knowledge can be identified and incorporated into the massive knowledge-base in such a way that it can be generally re-used. The practical outcome of this effort was a framework that illustrates a feasible approach to providing the massive knowledge-base with an ontologically-sound mechanism for automatically generating task-specific information agents to dynamically retrieve information from semi-structured information sources without requiring machine-readable meta-data. / The second work presented is based on reviving a previously published and neglected algorithm for inferring semantic correspondences between fields of tables from heterogeneous information sources. An adapted form of the algorithm is presented and evaluated on relatively simple and consistent data collected from web services in order to verify the original results, and then on poorly-structured and messy data collected from web sites in order to explore the limits of the algorithm. The results are presented via standard measures and are accompanied by detailed discussions on the nature of the data encountered and an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the algorithm and the ways in which it complements other approaches that have been proposed. / Acknowledging the cost and difficulty of integrating semantically incompatible software systems and information sources, the third work presented is a proposal and a working prototype for a web site to facilitate the resolving of semantic incompatibilities between software systems prior to deployment, based on the commonly-accepted software engineering principle that the cost of correcting faults increases exponentially as projects progress from phase to phase, with post-deployment corrections being significantly more costly than those performed earlier in a project’s life. The barriers to collaboration in software development are identified and steps taken to overcome them. The system presented draws on the recent collaborative successes of social and collaborative on-line projects such as SourceForge, Del.icio.us, digg and Wikipedia and a variety of techniques for ontology reconciliation to provide an environment in which data definitions can be shared, browsed and compared, with recommendations automatically presented to encourage developers to adopt data definitions compatible with previously developed systems. / In addition to the experimental works presented, this thesis contributes reflections on the origins of semantic incompatibility with a particular focus on interaction between software systems, and between software systems and their users, as well as detailed analysis of the existing body of research into methods and techniques for overcoming these problems.

[Truncated abstract] Rumours can lead to unpredictable events: the manner in which an organisation responds to a commercial rumour can alter its reputation, and can affect its profitability as well as, ultimately, its survival. Commercial rumours are now a prominent feature of the business environment. They can emerge from organisational change, pending workforce layoffs, mergers, and changes to management, in addition, commercial rumours can lower morale and undermine productivity. There are several well-known examples of commercial rumours that have been, or continue to be, circulated. Commercial rumours are typically either about a conspiracy or contamination issue. Conspiracy rumours usually target those organisational practices or policies which are identified as undesirable by the stakeholders. This form of rumour is often precipitated by situations where people do not have all the information about a situation, for example the rumour about Proctor & Gamble being run by the Moonies. Snapple, the soft drink company, was rumoured in 1992 to be supporting the Ku Klux Klan in closing abortion clinics. Contamination rumours are wide-ranging and typically have revulsion theme, such as McDonald’s "worms in the burger", Pop Rock’s candies which exploded in the stomach, and poison in Herron’s paracetamol . . . Marketers suggest that web sites Commerical Rumour Responses on the Web represent the future of marketing communications on the Internet. The key implication of this study for organisations is when faced with a negative rumour, specific and selected Web pages can be used manage company’s stakeholders recall the rumour and organisational stakeholders can be persuaded by the company’s rumour response strategies.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Communication, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-70).

Nesta dissertação observo a experiência conversacional dos interagentes nos comentários dos blogs Melhores do Mundo, Interney e Pensar Enlouquece. A organização da conversa nos três ambientes foi feita e representada graficamente para auxílio na observação de como os interagentes conversam nos blogs. Entrevistas com os autores dos blogs e a Análise da Conversação nos comentários de suas postagens serviram de instrumento de análise. A interação mediada por computador foi contrastada com a face a face para se tomar conhecimento das transformações no virtual em relação ao presencial. Os resultados apontam que as práticas dos blogueiros ao lidarem com os comentários interferem na forma como se dá a conversação online nesse ambiente. O controle dos comentários ou a falta dele por parte do blogueiro ora orienta à interação um-um, ora orienta à interação todos-todos. O resultado mostra práticas de como são as conversas nos espaços de comentários desses blogs e oferece indícios para o estudo da conversação online. / On this essay I observe the conversational experience of the interacting on the comments of blogs Melhores do Mundo, Interney and Pensar Enlouquece. The arrangement of the conversation in all three environments was done and represented graphically to help the observation of how he interacting talk on the blogs. Interviews with the blogs' writers and the Conversation Analysis on the comments to their postings served as instruments of analysis. The computer-mediated interaction was contrasted with the face-to-face interaction, in order to acknowledge the transformations in the virtual, in relation to presential. The results point that the practice of the bloggers while dealing with comments interferes on the way the conversation is held in given environment. The control over the comments, or the lack of it by the blogger, sometimes orients to one-to-one interaction, while other times orients to all-to-all interaction. The result shows practices of how the conversations on these blogs' comment areas are, and offers indication to the studies of online conversation.

Background: The virtuality of teams has increased due to the emergence computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools in the last decades. The push of instant messengers (IM) in private life has also lead to a stronger influx in the professional context. Theories such as media-synchronicity theory or the computer-mediated communication interaction model have described the capabilities of CMC tools and indicated their usage in teamwork related contexts. In this realm, the transmission of social cues has always been a potentially important matter of discussion. Purpose: Relating to studies from Asia and research conducted at the beginning of the century, the impact of the use of IM as communication tools on knowledge sharing and teamwork performance in Germany shall be assessed. Method: A partial least square-structural equation model is developed and tested using a survey distributed via a snowball approach among professionals in Germany. Conclusion: The results show that there is a significant positive relationship between the use of IM and knowledge sharing, respectively teamwork performance through its influence on communication quality. However, there is also a negative impact on interactivity which negatively affects knowledge sharing. It is also indicated that interruptions do not seem to have a negative impact on teamwork performance as it was discussed and rejected in several previous studies. Emoticons as a transmitter of social cues have not demonstrated to be of significant importance for communication in a professional context as of now. IM use leads to a positive impact on the perception of communication quality. Overall, IM are on the way to become an important communication channel in teamwork tasks, but will mostly serve as a complementary means of communication.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar e analisar as transformações que ocorreram na (1) atividade de blogar, (2) nas motivações para blogar e (3) nas relações estabelecidas nos blogs pessoais auto-reflexivos, aqueles divulgados pela mídia como “diários virtuais”. Neste estudo, o movimento gerado pela recursividade desses três elementos – motivações, práticas e relações – é chamado de “dinâmica relacional”. A partir da perspectiva de uma antropologia no ciberespaço, é realizado um estudo etnográfico em três blogs pessoais auto-reflexivos. Esta perspectiva antropológica considera as dimensões online e offline complementares e situa o pesquisador como um “nativo” do seu próprio campo de estudo, o ciberespaço. Assim, com base na análise de 1.137 posts, 2.078 comentários e na entrevista individual com as blogueiras, é feita uma “descrição densa” das dinâmicas relacionais dos blogs selecionados. Os resultados indicam que blogs pessoais auto-reflexivos não estão isentos de ações estratégicas, mesmo sendo um espaço para desabafar, meditar e livrar-se das tensões emocionais. Também mostram que características específicas dos blogs pessoais autoreflexivos favorecem o surgimento de sentimentos como afinidade e cumplicidade entre blogueiros e leitores. Mas, à medida que essas relações ganham intimidade, passam ser estabelecidas em outros meios mais responsivos que os blogs – como e-mail, telefone e encontros face a face – e mais fáceis de serem atualizados, como sites de redes sociais e plataformas de micropostagem. / This work aims to identify and to analyze the changes that occurred in (1) blogging activity, (2) motivations for blogging, (3) and relationships established in autoreflexive personal blogs, which are disclosed by the media as “online diaries”. In this study, the movement generated by the recursion of these three elements – motivations, practices and relations – is called “relational dynamics”. By adopting the perspective of anthropology in cyberspace, an ethnographic study is conducted in three autoreflexive personal blogs. This anthropological perspective considers the complementary of online and offline dimensions and it also situates the researcher as a “native” of his own field of study, the cyberspace. Thus, based on analysis of 1,137 posts, 2,078 comments and individual interviews with the bloggers, a “thick description” of the relational dynamics of selected blogs is conducted. The results indicate that autoreflexive personal blogs are not exempt from strategic actions, even being a space to let off steam, to muse and release emotional tensions. The results also show that specific characteristics of autoreflexive personal blogs promote the emergence of feelings such as affinity and complicity between bloggers and readers. However, as these relations become more intimate, they are being established in other media more responsive than blogs – such as e-mail, telephone and face to face meetings – and easier to be updated, as social networking sites and microposting platforms.

Nesta dissertação observo a experiência conversacional dos interagentes nos comentários dos blogs Melhores do Mundo, Interney e Pensar Enlouquece. A organização da conversa nos três ambientes foi feita e representada graficamente para auxílio na observação de como os interagentes conversam nos blogs. Entrevistas com os autores dos blogs e a Análise da Conversação nos comentários de suas postagens serviram de instrumento de análise. A interação mediada por computador foi contrastada com a face a face para se tomar conhecimento das transformações no virtual em relação ao presencial. Os resultados apontam que as práticas dos blogueiros ao lidarem com os comentários interferem na forma como se dá a conversação online nesse ambiente. O controle dos comentários ou a falta dele por parte do blogueiro ora orienta à interação um-um, ora orienta à interação todos-todos. O resultado mostra práticas de como são as conversas nos espaços de comentários desses blogs e oferece indícios para o estudo da conversação online. / On this essay I observe the conversational experience of the interacting on the comments of blogs Melhores do Mundo, Interney and Pensar Enlouquece. The arrangement of the conversation in all three environments was done and represented graphically to help the observation of how he interacting talk on the blogs. Interviews with the blogs' writers and the Conversation Analysis on the comments to their postings served as instruments of analysis. The computer-mediated interaction was contrasted with the face-to-face interaction, in order to acknowledge the transformations in the virtual, in relation to presential. The results point that the practice of the bloggers while dealing with comments interferes on the way the conversation is held in given environment. The control over the comments, or the lack of it by the blogger, sometimes orients to one-to-one interaction, while other times orients to all-to-all interaction. The result shows practices of how the conversations on these blogs' comment areas are, and offers indication to the studies of online conversation.