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Week 9 Reflection

 This week's focus on design spaces for communities and performance support was really interesting. Learning communities occur in basically every form of social media there is. I am part of multiple learning communities across Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Reddit. Some of them focus on rather silly content, such as the Twilight universe and trashy reality TV, while others focus on real-life skills like cooking, baking, and exercising. These communities can offer a lot of support to their members, but it is vital that they are made to be safe spaces where people feel comfortable enough to contribute and interact. 

Social media can also be used to support communities in a variety of ways. The article from this week's reading that focused on the library utilizing social media to become a more active member of the community is a great example of how social media can be used to support the community. Libraries are pillars of support for communities generally, and they were able to utilize social media to build their community presence and become a more active member in it. This led to more engagement and interaction with the library overall, which in turn led to more learning and community support. 

Finally, this week really emphasized the importance of listening to your community members when facilitating a learning group, even an informal one. One of my peer's said "your learning community knows best" in terms of what they need, and I cannot agree more. If you listen to your community, it will be easier to respond to their wants in needs in terms of informal learning, and from there, theortically, engagement and community should grow. 

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