Date of Graduation

8-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Communication (MA)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Communication

Advisor/Mentor

Warren, Ron

Committee Member

Walker, Kasey L.

Second Committee Member

Amason, Patricia

Keywords

Social sciences; Communication and the arts; Education; Amv.org; Community of practice; Online community; Peer-to-peer learning; Remixing; Social status

Abstract

People have engaged in peer-to-peer learning within communities of practice (CoPs) for centuries. Thanks to web 2.0 technology, people in the 21st century can now learn together and enact Social status even if they have never met face-to-face. Online communities of practice have since formed around a wide variety of activities, one of which is remixing. Remixing is defined as combining or editing existing materials to produce something new, but leaving each part recognizable as a separate entity. Remixing has recently been recognized as form of digital literacy because users must understand each component to make a good remix. Much has been written about remixing, but no studies have used CoP theory to study peer-to-peer learning and Social status within a community of practice focused on remixing. This study seeks to fill that void by studying the online community AMV.org. The first key finding is that user responsibility (or lack thereof) is an important part of either facilitating or inhibiting peer-to-peer learning in this community. The second key finding is that integrating new users into the community is an important part of peer-to-peer learning in this community. The third finding centers on AMV.org’s unique attributes as a CoP focused on the practice of remixing and these attributes’ facilitation of peer-to-peer learning.

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