Interesting article…..and I appreciate Jim warning us about the technical language (edu jargon, etc). It is interesting to see the conflict between originality and creativity. I understand how some might feel that remixing someone else’s work does not create a work of one’s own.

Here’s my things though. This is how we learn. Not just as students, but as human beings. We look at what has been done before, and we examine the elements that make it what it is. Then, using our imaginations, we try to expand on that in order to make something unique. Artists of every type do this every day. Entrepreneurs seek a niche in the business world, they look at what other companies are doing, and imagine how they could do it different.

My mother used to tell me ” There’s nothing new under the sun, only different”. This is so true. This is how art is created, this is how business evolves, this is how people grow, how humanity has evolved.

I absolutely believe in giving credit where credit is due, especially in the context of edu. As students at UMW, we should all take pride in our work, AND in the honor system we pledged to abide by. But this should in no way hold us back from exploring creativity, and trying to create new from old. So long as we give credit to those who we get our ideas from, then there should not be any barriers to our creativity.

I do the same thing with my car. I’m still not as far along as I’d like to be, but when I do finally get to doing the body work and painting it, I have several ideas I’d like to do. When that time comes, I have every intention of giving credit to those who did something similar before me. Some of my ideas are truly unique, but those I derived from others, will be credited to them.