Week 6 - Wenger

I would define an 'Organizational unit' as something thats unnatural, but conform to rules, regulations and objectives, an example may be a business of some sort, who may rely on money, a USP and people. People belong to communities of practice 'at the same time as they belong to other organizational structures'.

'Community of Practice' can be defined as a group of people who come together informally. They exist anywhere from in the home, businesses or school. Think about when you were at school, a big organisation ran by the governement who required you to achieve various outcomes, this would be considered an 'organizational unit'. Whilst your at school you develop theses communities of practices by being part of a group, from friends to taking part in the school football team. According to Wenger; this community is developed throught time and various stages

1. Potentional - First day of secondary school, people are unsure of everyone's personalities and capabilites
2. Coalescing - Start making friends, finding commonalites and negotiating a community.
3. Active - These people become part of your practice, you share the same language, understand how everyone behaves and have many common interests.
4. Dispersed - You leave school and maybe become part of other communties, maybe created through starting a job. Still talk though, maybe through social networking sites and so the knowledge of the community is still alive
5. Memorable - As you get older, this community is no longer central but you have kept a year book or tell stories about your 'community of practice', which consisted of your group of friends.

Nevertheless, sometimes there is a need to 'leigitimize a community', through the use of internal leadership. At secondary school, i remember being part of the school council; this was a group of students that made decisions about what activities should or may take place within the school. The common language and knowledge still existed within the 'community of practice', as it was fellow students who were involved, but there was one student who was in charge. This person would have been described as an 'institutional leader'. An 'institutional leadership' maintained links with an 'official hierachy',within a 'organizational unit' which in relation to school might be the head of year or the headteacher.

This notion of leadership creates what Wenger calls 'nurturing' and it can be formal or informal. This nurturing process could be referred to how im blogging within this unit. The 'community of practice' has been made through the friendships made be coursemates, we have a common language and knowledge of what were doing, the leadership would come formally from our tutors. There are many types of nurturing that Wenger outlines, in this case it may reflect on the idea of 'legitimzing particiaption'. This is recognising work of others, letting them participate in activities and an opportunity to talk; 'communities of practice do not usually require heavy institutional infrastructures, but their members do need time and space to collaborate', which when applied to our community on blogger, this is literally the case, we are able to share our own thoughts via posts, were given allocated time to do so, we can talk to one another and also have a leader to nurture us.