Sue's tasks - task 4

Our forum as a Community of Practice

It can be seen that our forum for this unit is a community of practice as we all have a joint interprise and a shared goal. As a group we are aiming to acquire the best mark we can for this unit while also understanding and learning the tasks given to us each week. It also fits Wenger's theory that it is different to an organisational unit as our forum is not formal and doesn't have a strict person to answer to. There is obviously a hierarchy structure however as the tutors are at the top assessing our progress and giving us marks, but they are there to help with our development of practice, not to restrict us.

The rest of our community which involves just students are at an equal level with everyone else as we all started with the same basic knowledge of the 'new media' topic. This means there isn't an extreme difference in the power structure between us and we all fit the same role of using the forum as a learning device. However, it could be said that the members who have fallen behind in the weekly tasks could be seen slightly lower in the hierarchy as their learning and practice is behind everyone elses.

I can't see any other roles that could be fulfilled as there are only two main differences in the members of the community - the tutors, and the students. If there are any more that you can think of that i've left out then please let me know! What did you think about our forum being a community of practice?