Robotics Discourse Community Analysis

1213 Words3 Pages

They say a discourse community consists of individuals who are like-minded with the same goals and values. I had my own purpose for joining the robotics discourse community. During my junior year of high school, I joined the robotics club to pursue the thrill of joining a discourse community for which I had zero previous knowledge of. Becoming a full-fledged member for the robotics discourse community took time as I had to establish my credibility with experienced members, create supportive relationships with others, and gain the necessary knowledge to continue participating in the community. Some may believe that I am not a true full-fledged member of the robotics discourse community because I was not going to use these skills for a career …show more content…

However, this appointment in trustworthiness was not always such. In the start of it all I was at rock bottom in comparison to the other members that’ve been there for their entire high school career. As part of the many new members, I knew nothing about robotics which includes the basics of using a drill. I had to step my game up very quickly, quicker than other members, because the community elected me to be their safety captain. As weeks passed I learned the necessary knowledge to become successful. I attended every single meeting to grasp as much knowledge I could comprehend and with the help of my friend Patrick, the leading captain of the club, I greatly increased my understanding of the field. With his claimed status I stood by him a lot of the time for which he taught me everything he knew. After a short time, the acquired mastery I obtained led to the approval of the captain and senior members of my credibility. From this came my new duty of assisting others in need of help. I bettered other members’ skills of tool usage and knowledge for wiring of the different parts of the robot. It was my turn to teach the rest of the new community my new-found skills that have been approved and set credible by the experienced members. The robotics club at the time was for the talented and experienced in the field, not for those without any experience on the subject. …show more content…

Many had the same introduction to a discourse community just as I did without much knowledge in the field, but from the information I gathered through my experience I created these connections. The beginning of the trust filled relationships started with a potentially hazardous situation. There was a time in which a battery we used to power the robot began to leak on the training field. These batteries were rechargeable and were used by my high school’s robotics team for several years. Damage on some of these batteries have accumulated through that time. One day, a battery had reached its limit on the physical abuse it could take during a training session and began to leak form the top. At that moment it was just me and another member of the community. I was there to control the situation and tell him to leave the battery alone. From there we grabbed some gloves, grabbed the large battery, and disposed of it in a safe manner. As the duty of the safety captain, I protected the community to which the tight relationships began to rise. As part of the community, I was there to support others during incidents such as this one. Not only did I support others, but others supported me through different means such as making sure I did not accidentally break

Open Document