Affinity Spaces Discussion

One of the concepts I'd like to explore from Jenkins is James Gee's discussion of "affinity spaces." These are the informal learning cultures that students (and others) can use to mentor each other based on shared interests and goals.

in thinking about Gee's concept, I'd like to offer my own use of group blogs as a case study. In my Rhetoric and Democracy course from Fall 2004 (a whole election ago!), I required students to create group blogs focusing on a campaign issue that was important to them. As you can see, they wrote about a variety of topics, including gay marriage, international affairs, and stem cell research, among other topics (you might skim the sidebar to see how others pursued this project).

While I am aware of some differences--students were required to complete this project; the topics would likely not be relevant to younger students--it might present an interesting case study for class discussion.