Additional Google is my friend writing

Additional Ideas for Connections from class regarding Affinity spaces on web search.

At which point did I become an insider of this participatory culture activity? Why did I not become an insider in this project? I did not actively participate on a fan fiction website.  An insider is someone who is an “expert” on the particular subject.  This expert will engage in online discussions offering their suggestions, criticisms, to others as well as receiving suggestions and criticisms to perhaps something that the expert has posted.

This complete stop animation project was an act of literacy.  I had to find information for our project as the need presented itself.  This type of needing to get more information as the need arises is referred to as just-in-time-learning which is a pattern that our group found.  Analysing the data collected from our field notes clearly indicates this pattern of the use of online affinity spaces to gather information or learn each time that we came to a problem for our movie creation.  The repeated actions of this just-in-time-learning indicates the learning through digital literacy activities. 

This act of problem solving became an act of literacy as I had to find the necessary information from many different places,  the data indicates that searched for answers to our problems by making Google my friend and engaging in reading what others had discovered with how to create and improve stop motion animation using 21^st Century digital media technology.

I had become literate in the act of creating stop animation at the moment that I become able to use the specific language that is affiliated with stop film animation.

Though I used Affinity fan fiction websites for additional effects and sounds for my stop motion movie I felt that I was on the edge or periphery of participating in and Affinity such as a Fan Fiction Website, the data indicates that I was engaged in Gees idea of an affinity site whereby I searched out information as it was needed at that moment to advance my learning of stop animation.  I did not become part of the actual online discourse because my need for information is of a temporary situation, in other words, because I do not plan to be an active participant and continue to make fan fiction movies I consider myself a temporary because of the just-in-time-learning information needed for the movie project.

I did not feel like I was an expert in the creation and sharing of the stop motion animation movie, as indicated in the data:   I did not contribute or add anything to the many different posts of people who were in the know or experts in stop motion movie making using 21^st Century digital skills, therefore I was unwilling to actively participate in a discussion on a Star Wars Fan Fiction chat board.  However, there was no reason why I could not have created an account, and participated in the many chat rooms or boards where others who are in the know or at least appeared to be knowledgeable and began to become an insider. Perhaps because this was a project in learning and not entirely personal interest of my own is the reason why I did not begin to chat.

I was able to read through many posts and comments from the “community” members therefore discovering specific information that I was looking for at that moment again the just in time information referred to by _________-.  I felt that I did not have anything that I could add to the comments as I felt that I did not have enough knowledge or experience in this area.

Affinity spaces do represent an ideal learning environment as these spaces offer a digital space for participants to be a “part of” their own learning.  I draw many connections to my own personal learning through the use of such tools as a computer to access the Internet and search for pieces of published articles and how to manuals for many aspects of my ongoing learning.  For example the use of the Internet in such as ways as conducting information gathering searches on Google to search out how-to instructions for creating our stop film movie as an artefact from our learning.  As well as participating in online fan fiction sites collecting information for the betterment of the movie.  According to Jenkins and Gee:  “Affinity spaces offer powerful opportunities for learning, Gee argues, because they are sustained by common endeavors that bridge differences in age, class, race, gender, and educational level, and because people can participate in various ways according to their skills and interests, because they depend on peer-to-peer teaching with each participant constantly motivated to acquire new knowledge or refine their existing skills, and because they allow each participant to feel like an expert while tapping the expertise of others.” (White Paper: Jenkins page 10).