Communication and Social Behaviors on the Internet

From lecture 5&6 we get to know about social psychology theories of groups and group behaviors, together with knowledge management and knowledge building. In the following part, I will describe them in details.

Social Psychology Theories of Groups and Group Behaviors

Firstly, let’s take a look at the meaning of group structure: The group is a structure consists of members with different roles, status, relations and communication networks, as well as subgroups. Members in a group typically coordinate their actions by communicating with one another, and communication can be defined as the process by which an individual transmits information to another person. So it is obvious that communication in groups may serve functions which include controlling group members, expressing emotions, and exchanging information.

A most significant function of groups is to make decisions. Here’s a particular rule: a group adopts can be influenced by the nature of the decision-making task. For example, if the task is to decide which restaurant to eat in, the group might adopt majority wins. Another thing worthy to say is that a group can have a leader, who enables groups to function as productive and coordinated wholes. In social psychology, leadership is a process of social influence through which an individual recruits and mobilizes the aid of others in the attainment of a collective goal.

Knowledge Building Principles

Suggested by Marlene Scardamalia, there are 12 principles acting as a system to facilitate development of knowledge building communities such as Real Ideas, Authentic Problems, Improvable Ideas, Idea Diversity, etc. To find more about them and their supporting socio-cognitive dynamics and technological dynamics, please see http://lcp.cite.hku.hk/resources/KBSN/Q1/KB_Principle.html.

Finally, I want to talk about some influential factors. As we know, communication and social behaviors on the internet can be affected by the patterns of ties among people. The more people are socially connected, the more intensely they are likely to communicate using various media available to them. It is applicable to describe human relationships across two media too. Another obvious thing is that internet social communication supplements and is an extension of traditional social behaviors. The more a person interacts traditionally and the more intimate his/her relationships, the more he/she would use the Internet to maintain communication with others and the more intimate would be his/her online communication. Social motives and attributes have also been linked to online communication. Those with low or unsatisfactory traditional social contacts use the Internet more frequently than others. For example, a single child who is isolated uses an online support group more frequently than those who are not. 

Questions in Class Activity One and Two: 1. The definition of Social Cloud: A Social Cloud is a resource and service sharing framework utilizing relationships established between members of a social network. 2. The possible applications of a Social Cloud: The passage shows 5 different potential applications of a Social Cloud, which are: Social Computation Cloud; Social Storage Cloud; Social Collaborative Cloud; Social Cloud for Public Science; Enterprise Social Cloud.

What was the epistemic aims in (1) Class Activity One (individual work) and (2) Class Activity Two (group work)? Is there any change in epistemic aim? If so, why did you change your aims?

For individual work, the epistemic aims to obtain the right answer from the given article, which is mainly about understanding and acquiring true. But for group work, since we have already formed our own understanding individually, the epistemic aim changes to a higher level – reorganization of concepts through making discussion. By knowing others’ answers and explanation, we are able to reflect thoughts from a different view, which we didn’t have before. This helps improve our answers, as well as our way of thinking.

Is there any difference in terms of individual and group epistemic cognition, how?

I think so. Individuals get new knowledge only by themselves. They rely on their personal experiences to solve problems. There would be no feedback or opinions from other people. So it’s difficult for individual to justify the correctness of the new belief. But group members can get new knowledge from the others, forming a new platform of learning and gaining fresh ideas to solve questions. Through group discussion, various ideas and knowledge can be connected to reach a higher level of cognition.  

How did you approach to the problem individually and in group, respectively? Is there any difference in the processes involved?

Individually, my approach to the problem is: 1st, read the two questions; 2nd, scan the article quickly, and highlight several important sentences related to the questions; 3rd, focus on the highlighted sentences, summarize the answer.

In group, my approach to the problem is: 1st, finish individual work; 2nd, everyone explains his original answers; 3rd, make group discussion and form some general ideas; 4th, summarize answers, and everyone’s understanding of knowledge improves.

In conclusion, group epistemic cognition is based on individual epistemic cognition, and everyone’s understanding of knowledge will be improved after discussion.