Identity by Wenger

As we attempt to come to grips with a description of identity in the Web 2.0 world I found a few excerpts from Wenger that speak to learning communities that may be applicable."... learning involves an interaction between experience and competence" (pg. 214)."When a community makes learning a central part of its enterprise, useful wisdom is not concentrated at the core of its practice" (pg. 216)."Learning communities do have a strong core, but they let peripheral and core activities interact, because it is in these interactions that they are likely to find the new experiences and new forms of competence necessary to create new knowledge" (pg. 217).As people interact in blogs, wikis, twitter conversations, etc... are they participating in learning communities? This gets back to the implicit question of the title of this course, disruptive technologies. As an educator, I am always looking at new technology from a stance of how can it enhance learning not distract learning. I think web 2.0 technologies do have the potential to stimulate learning communities if used correctly. One example of a benefit of web 2.0 design is that many more members of communities can now have their voices/ideas heard. In a traditional classroom it is difficult if not nearly impossible to gather feedback from every student during every class.