Affinity Spaces

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This reflection is a direct result of reading I’m doing for 6511 SDL since this book by James Paul Gee [Literacy in Education] is selected for this course. This book was one I had hoped to read in order to build a deeper understanding of literacy, which it has. What surprise me was the extension of my understanding of affinity spaces as outlined by Gee and how some of the digital and virtual spaces in which I learn and work are similar to Gee’s notion of affinity spaces from a video gaming context. I’m currently using these key points to compare/contrast these characteristics to the OEM Connect spaces mentioned earlier [Why Mentoring Matters] and the eCampus Ontario Extend space.

Gee describes affinity spaces and outlines fifteen characteristics. (please consider that all text expressed below is a direct transcription from the book and should be attributed to Gee (2015)).

  • “Affinity spaces do not have to be virtual, although the Internet lends itself extremely well to the creation of such spaces.” (p. 119)
  • “Affinity spaces are an out-of-school form of ubiquitous learning” … “different affinity spaces operate by different norms” … “Affinity spaces do not have to have all these features, but they must have most of them” (p. 120)

Features of Affinity Spaces:

  1. Affinity spaces are organized around a common endeavor for which at least many people in the space have a passion. The common endeavor is primary, not race, class, gender or disability – respect the passion, opportunities to become passionate
  2. Affinity spaces are usually not segregated by age. – e.g. older beginners; judged by passion not age; more expert peers serve the role of social leaders helping to maintain norms and standards
  3. Newbies, masters and everyone else share a common space. – continuum of people; can pursue own goals based on choices, purposes, and identities; mingle; lurk – view but not contribute; listen to the experts
  4. Everyone can, if they wish, produce and not just consume – tools, tutorials, mentorship are widely offered; people encouraged but not forced to produce, to participate, not just consume or be a spectator; standards of production continually rise; push the collective bar for achievement
  5. Content is transformed by interaction. Content is not fixed but negotiated, by ongoing production by people in the space.
  6. The development of both specialist and broad, general knowledge are encouraged, and specialist knowledge is pooled – blend special skills to collaborate; share passion and purpose; isolated experts or mere generalists are encouraged to contribute
  7. Both individual and distributed knowledge are encouraged – gain individual knowledge and use/contribute to distributed knowledge – knowledge possessed by people, stored in material on the site or links, to which people can connect or network their own knowledge; ability to know and do more than just on their own.
  8. The use of dispersed knowledge is facilitated. – found on other sites or other group spaces, valuing local and particular knowledge available in other places; recognizing limitations of its own knowledge base and resources
  9. Tacit knowledge is used and honoured; explicit knowleged is encouraged. – knowledge that may not be able to explicate fulling in words; tutorials found in abundance; personal contact through forums and messaging used to pass on knowledge and tricks of the trade; incentives to articulate tacit knowledge
  10. There are many different forms and routes to participate – various ways and levels; peripherally; centrally; lead and mentor; follow and get mentored
  11. There are many different routes to status – good at different things; gain repute as content creators or sharing tutorials, or managing the space; acceptance of people who don’t want status
  12. Leadership is porous and leaders are resources – do not have bosses; people can lead in some situations, follow in others; leaders are designers, mentors, resourcers, and enablers of other people’s participation and learning; cannot order people around or create hierarchies; respect for experts or those with advanced skills without being hierarchical
  13. Roles are reciprocal – lead/follow; mentor/get mentored; teach/learn; ask/answer; encourage/get encouraged; desire to give back to the others in the space
  14. A view of learning that is individually proactive, but does not exclude help, is encouraged – individuals are viewed as learners who are self-propelled, use trial and error, failure seen as path to success; personal responsibility to own learning
  15. People get encouragement from an audience and feedback from peers, though everyone plays both roles at different times. – supportive, offer encouragement; get/give critical feedback

NOTES FROM Pages 120 to 127

Gee, J. P. (2015). Literacy and education. New York, NY: Routledge.