Hearing your thoughts through the mouth of someone else is really quite unnerving. Are they in agreement or about to shoot you down in flames?
As I listened intently at Grainne Connole’s keynote presentation at CSUED this week I was nervous. Nervous because as I listened she started to cover points that I was planned to cover in the presentation I was due to give in a couple of hours. Is she going to share the same slides? Quote the same people? Can I find something to replace it with? Luckily the themes were common but we each took a different approach and applied it to a different context. But the fact the we were talking about the same things was thrilling because we had reached similar conclusions and thoughts but completely independently to each other. For me – a lowly support staff from a university in Wagga Wagga – it was exciting as it confirmed that I was onto something, my thinking sound.
That night I wrote and posted a blog post – Openness – Can the real disruptor please stand up? – espowsing that Openness, not MOOCs, is the real innovation we need to be paying attention to. So again it was amazing to read a few days later the same themes – The Real Revolution Is Openness, Clay Shirky Tells Tech Leaders. Again, someone far more renowned than little ol’ me sharing similar views at Educause in front of leaders in Higher Education.
It was a boost to my confidence for sure! Now to just get a sense of if I’m communicating those ideas as effectively….
Heart | Soul | Machine 