cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo shared by Brian Moore
From several conversations, one of the biggest reasons that many people say that they have nothing “new” to share with an audience. This fear is often confirmed when you hear people say things such as, “Reading blogs is like reading the same thing over and over again.” Pretty tough to jump in when you hear comments like this and the fear of lacking originality is a big deal.
The reality is though, the more connected someone is, the less likely they are to see many new ideas. It is rare that I see any speaker and I haven’t already read their material, looked up their work, and know their message before they deliver it. As a speaker myself, if you read my blog, you probably have a good idea of what I am going to talk about. What I do know is that the majority of people that watch me speak have never read my blog. Whatever I am sharing to the majority of the audience is something that they may not have heard before, or maybe, I am presenting in my own unique way.
One of my biggest struggles with being connected is seeing something that is “amazing” one day, that dominates the sharing online, yet a week later, that same piece is just lost in the shuffle. There are a lot of articles that I bookmark and refer to often and have shared several times, sometimes including my own.
My rationale? What is old to you might be new to someone else.
For example, I just met someone the other day that talked about doing “Identity Day” and how they fell upon this idea only recently. This is something that I had shared almost four years ago but they are only seeing for the first time. The other component that I found interesting? Although I shared this work from our school where it was an “original” idea (I think…I mean it is REALLY hard to have an original idea) from my assistant principal, yet they referenced being inspired by Chris Wejr sharing the idea from the work that he has done at his school.
Now some people would be bothered by this, but I honestly could care less. Chris has always referenced that he got the idea from my former school in his posts but not everyone remembers that in reading his post. Ultimately, if your school is doing this day and it helps your kids, why wouldn’t I want it to be shared? Identity Day was one of, if not the most powerful day I have ever seen with students. I am glad that others are sharing it.
So a couple of things to think about it…
The chance of your work being “original” to everyone, in many cases, is “slim to nil”. But the chance that your work is original to someone is extremely high. There are more people connecting everyday which means there is always a new audience. I am not encouraging that you steal other people’s ideas and use them as your own, but rather crediting where you got the idea from, and sharing it with others. This is part of the “remix” culture that we live in and have to embrace as educators. Sometimes the best ideas at one school, need some tweaking for another. Each iteration of an idea opens opportunities for others.
The other thing is that writing should always start with your own reflection in mind. I use blogging as a way to work through my ideas and knowing that I am reflecting openly pushes me to really clarify. I rarely, if ever, write the exact idea that I started with. The process of writing helps me to connect my ideas and bring them to life.
To all of the people that complain that there are new original ideas out there on Twitter or in the blogosphere, just remember that once those ideas were once totally new to you while old to someone else. And those same “old ideas” probably sparked you to action then, as they might spark someone to action now.
Share away!
