Современные информационные технологии и IT-образование (May 2020)

Network Analysis of the Information’s Dissemination in a Group of Schoolchildren

  • Alexei Altoukhov,
  • Darya Vasianina,
  • Ekaterina Vetrova,
  • Sergey Tichtchenko,
  • Olga Klachkova

DOI
https://doi.org/10.25559/SITITO.16.202001.171-176
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 1
pp. 171 – 176

Abstract

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This publication presents the results of a study about the speed of dissemination of information in a group of schoolchildren. The study was performed by network analysis. The purpose of the study is modeling and analysis of the social structure of the community of schoolchildren and the speed of dissemination of information. The objectives were also to obtain answers to the following questions: how different are the network characteristics of a group of students from a random graph; does the network device comply with the friendly relationships within the team with the general network laws; what are the key differences between the dissemination of information in a graph based on the example of a group of schoolchildren from its distribution in a random graph. A random graph with similar basic parameters was specially built for the purpose of this study. The work is preceded by a detailed analysis of researches in the fields of network analysis, social models and human behavior. The following are empirical data that are specifically collected for this study. It is explained how and why we received this information. The main part of the study reflects the fact that basing on the collected empirical data, we have constructed graphs for studying the main characteristics of the considered schoolchildren community. The analysis includes determining the presence of clusters, calculating and analyzing the centrality of the graph of a group of schoolchildren and its similarity to a random graph. Based on an empirical study analysis of the results showed that information is better disseminated (for fewer iterations) precisely in the context of a real group of schoolchildren. In contrast, in a random network, communications are more evenly distributed, which slows down the speed of information’s dissemination. The study is provided with the necessary explanations, as well as illustrative graphs and tables.

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