Do you ever look back and realize for days, perhaps weeks, you have heard a recurring theme in your conversations? Through social media sharing–in your tweets? In your thoughts? Sharing is the concept I have had circling around my head, like stars in a cartoon knock out.
I was discussing a concept that a Twitter friend had previously told me. When another teacher complimented me on the idea, I quickly deferred to the original creator. The teacher paused and said with such sincerity, “The point is, you both shared the idea.” She was right. The point is, we both shared it.
This past Sunday morning I watched the CBS Sunday morning show segment named, “Welcome to the New Economy Built on Sharing.” The concept of the segment is in this tough economy, many are choosing to share, cars, homes, and even money. It’s working. People are giving. People are receiving and they are growing together, remixing materials, money and creating a new product as a result.
Getting Out Of Your Comfort Zone
How many times do you hear, “I’m more of a lurker”? At some point, you have to push yourself out of the shadows, out of the comfort zone of the lurking, and be brave enough to share. You can’t keep taking without giving back. Perhaps you can, but, should you?
It is scary. I put myself out there a few times and failed. Someone misunderstood what I meant. Someone told me I was wrong, but I survived.
Other times, I have put myself out there and made some amazing professional education connections. I learned many new programs, tools and have grown greatly as a professional. Sharing is the key word. Someone generously shared the ideas, the knowledge, the questions, the answers. Why should it end there?
Don’t we have a responsibility to take that and build on it? Make it better? Make it different?
Make it ours, then, share it?
So take to twitter, pinterest, or facebook and share that idea with the world and allow it to grow and change. After all, if we can build a new economy on sharing we can certainly create new learning environments on it, too.