#1302progress

Check out my moves.....Yes a few years ago while she was home visiting Houston on vacation. We went down to the old dance studio and she asked me to help her come up with some original moves for her next video. So I put on one of my favorite tracks Love On top and started to groove. I didn’t know just how serious she took me until I seen this GIF!!!!! Get your groove on baby. FANFICTION at it’s finest. LOL.

This unit involves us doing our survey within our fandom. It was fairly simple to come up with my questions. The instructor has provided us with the proper tools and preparation up until this point to easily understand what we need to ask. I have decided to post my survey in my Facebook group, after approval from our instructor. I also got the approval from the admins of the Facebook group to be able to post my survey on the page to see if I could elicit responses. I received some feedback from some of the group members on how to make the survey more user-friendly, which doesn’t surprise me as this house is known for its wit and intelligence. I feel confident that I will get enough responses to be able to create a cohesive paper and provide the needed information to answer my research question. Questions and constructive criticism are always welcome.

This unit’s assignment took everything we have learned so far and required us to set up our intent. We were instructed to layout our plans for research in this class and how we plan to carry out our research expedition. Putting together my research plan was pretty straightforward, and I feel more prepared to carry out my research. I am excited to share the Harry Potter world with my classmates and see what fandoms they hold memberships Even if two or more of us focus on Harry Potter, it means something different to everyone and no two experiences will be alike. My community of practice is a fandom facebook group where I am a member. It is a large community with members all over the united states and the world. We all come together in the Harry Potter world, and we support each other. I feel that I will get some interesting information from this group and be able to use it in my research.

Just a sample of the fun had at a White Elephant Christmas Palooza. Wear your PJs…  Bring some food, some wine, a gag gift and get ready for lots of laughs. This is one of my favorite girl group events we enjoy every year. These events are always held AFTER the new year so it doesn’t interfere with family time. We eat, drink, gossip and have a white elephant gift exchange. We draw numbers and chose the gifts at random. There is NEVER a dull moment with girls, gossip and gag gifts. 

This week, we dive deeper into our chosen units of practice. We start incorporating field notes which should be super easy for me to find. I will have my pick of items to reblog for the assignments moving forward, so much is out there that I will have a hard time narrowing it down! Harry Potter is all over Tumblr. There are fan fiction submissions, artwork, quotes, memes, still frames from the films, and so much more. The Harry Potter fan world is large and very welcoming. It brings many different people together who all share the love of the story and the fantasy world that it created in front of our eyes. I can't wait to do my survey in my community of practice to see what other fans answer about this topic. It will give a good perspective to see others interpretations and be able to compare them to my own and others in the same community of practice.

Communities of practice are everywhere. There are sub-communities within these larger communities. We have our kid’s school community, dance community, swim community, work communities, and many many more. Each of these teaches us something that the others possibly can’t, but together they make us who we are. Different people have access to different communities of practice that instill the same information; they just may go about it in various manners. If you want to get somewhat philosophical, these communities of practice are everything around us at all times. That billboard reminds me to fasten my seatbelt, that road sign tells me there is a sharp curve ahead, this book taught me how to cook meals, this friend showed me Crossfit. All of these things make up me and my everyday life. We all have a different community of practice. Sometimes we might share a community of practice, but we each have our individual experiences from it.

My peer partner for this assignment placed a bet with her husband that I was a military veteran. I’m not, though I was honored that she thought that. She told me that I wrote like one. While I don’t know really what she meant by that, it brought home the point that people in this class are from all walks of life and circumstances. We work together to bring new experiences into each other’s lives and learn from one another’s writing styles. The peer review aspect each unit gives us insight that we may not even think of when writing our papers and broadens our learning. Some people in this class are fresh out of high school, and there are those like me, who are returning later in life to finish their degree to further their career or change them completely. While we are at different stages of learning, we each bring something new to the table.

This unit’s writing assignment is about ethics and informed consent. When I first think of informed consent, I thought of the consent I signed for my son to have his tonsils taken out. In reality, that is only one type of consent. The consent applies to research, medical treatments, everyday activities, even allowing my son to watch a particular movie in class. We don’t realize how much around us we have to give permission or approval of and how much that permission or approval can be violated or misappropriated. When involving anyone other than ourselves, and sometimes even ourselves, it is critical that we look at all sides and understand what is being asked. We need to consider all participants in any research or studies that we are conducting. Even the person we are asking one simple question to is required to have a consent to make sure they understand what they are doing.