‘Communities of practice have been around for as long as human beings have learned together. At home, at work, at school, in our hobbies, we all belong to communities of practice, a number of them usually. In some we are core members. In many we are merely peripheral. And we travel through numerous communities over the course of our lives.’ (Wenger 2006)
Wegner has hit the nail on the head here; the way in which we network in our day and age and also in the past has been through a number of people having a common interest. The people within my current networks are all there because we share some interest whether it is personal or professional. As I said previously in task 3a I have separate social networking sites and emails for my professional life, all who are in these networks are professionals I have met through work, training, through other colleagues and from watching productions and then speaking to the actors or directors involved afterwards. I believe most social and professional interaction with other individuals is a form of networking even if we don’t necessarily realise this at the time. Networks are built in all different situations and ways and Wagner really has hit the nail on the head here as we do build networks from ‘numerous communities over the course of our lives.’ (Wenger 2006)
Axelrod’s notion of cooperation in network is something I can relate with well. A welsh television, stage, film and radio actress Gwen Ellis has been a family friend for many years and when I decided to pursue a career in performance was more than happy to work with me whilst applying from Drama Schools. Her and her husband who is also a welsh actor then took a common interest in my training and how I was developing in drama school always there to give advice during my training and now in my professional life after graduating. After building this network, initially socially and now professionally I was then asked to be involved in the Directing of their production of Rocky Horror. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to in the end as my tour started at the same time. However they still want me to be involved in further productions they direct both on stage and as an Assistant Director. This is a fantastic example of Axelrod’s notion and I imagine is a situation that many professional performers can relate to.
The above also ties into the concept of Affliction. Affliction describes a natural and instinctual need for us to interact and network with individuals who can beneficially help us. When I first applied for Drama School my natural instinct was to ask Gwen Ellis for help because I knew about her professional history. I think that Affliction isn’t necessarily something we decide to do consciously but rather as is described a natural and also initially subconscious need. The way in which we use Affliction also can vary depending on whether we are extrovert or introvert individuals. I personally feel that I am a mixture of both depending on the situation I am in and how I feel emotionally that particular day. I try to establish as many networks as possible in my professional life and most of the time I do this in quite an extrovert fashion; however I have the tendency sometimes to shy away from situations depending on how I feel. This may in tern mean I miss out on opportunities that would have arisen had I been more extrovert in the beginning. In my personal life however I am more introvert as although I know a lot of people I tend to class them as acquaintances rather than friends and only keep a very tight nit group of close friends. I think that practicing in an extrovert way is something I can improve on in my professional life; however also feel it is healthy to be a mix of both as sometimes people who are overly extrovert can be wrongly appear arrogant or patronising even if this is not their intention.
‘Over the last twenty years, technology has reorganized how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn. Learning needs and theories that describe learning principles and processes should be reflective of underlying social environments.’ (Siemens 2004)
Siemens describes how the way we communicate and build networks should be a reflective process. Which is absolutely true as we all learn from our own experiences and the experiences of others as I came to realise from the reflective reader in part 2 of this module. I believe the foundation of how we begin to network and find individuals and communities of common interest is initially a natural instinct which we then consciously build on in our professional lives.
Please leave comments on how you felt after your research. It will be interesting to see what we have found that is similar and what is different as of course we have a common interest in being on this course and going through the process of reflection in this module.
