Delving into Disaboom....

This is my presentation on the Disaboom Community for CI5323, ttps://umconnect.umn.edu/p91408368/. I actually determined from an evaluative process that Disaboom is more of a social community rather than a community of practice (CoP), which is just fine, because that is the purported purpose of Disaboom. Actually, when I started this course, I didn't really know the difference--mostly due to my inexperience in working with online groups and communities. The project of searching and finding an exemplar online community was really a good experience for me and I am glad that I found Barab, MaKinster, and Scheckler's (2004) criteria for understanding what is and is not a community as well as what constitutes a community of practice. A community of practice must have the following features:

(1) shared knowledge, values, and beliefs;
(2) overlapping histories among members;
(3) mutual interdependence;
(4) mechanisms for reproduction,
(5) a common practice and/or mutual enterprise;
(6) opportunities for interactions and participation;
(7) meaningful relationships; and
(8) respect for diverse perspectives and minority views.

Check out my presentation and see if you agree with my appraisal.