Sharing Knowledge
Learning about the Communities of Practice was kind of cool because I already knew the general concept of it, I just did not know that there was a name for it. Most people participate in them often without even knowing that this is what they are called. I feel that Reddit is the social media platform that best exemplifies the concept of a Community of Practice because there are literally different sections of the site devoted to different subjects rather than having to discover specific people with similar interests on other social media platforms. I also think that the purpose of Reddit being basically a host for communities of practice makes it the best because when people have an interest in something, they know that they can go there. Instagram and other platforms have tried to do this by following hashtags, but it is just not as good.
These are all subreddits just about computer science.
This is a view of Instagram’s feature for following hashtags. It is very limited compared to Reddit.
Reading about the professional view of this model as well as the progression over time was a good read. I think that it is kind of funny how these professionals are observing and researching ways to enhance these models while there are normal people that are participating that are furthering the model unintentionally. I like the fact that the Communities of Practice model has moved away from an apprentice-like situation towards a more peer based model. This might inevitably happen where one person will often mentor or teach someone if the community is smaller, but I think that it is okay as an option and not the main structure.
I think that anyone, regardless of their interests, should be on Reddit because I feel like it is the best resource for peer to peer dialogue. They have a large amount of different communities all pretty easily discoverable.
