In many ways I agree with you, jargon can be reall...

2011-10-28T14:40:55.454+01:00

In many ways I agree with you, jargon can be really useful within a community. As you rightly point out it does allow us to label things that don’t yet have a name. It also allows us to communicate in a kind of ‘short hand’, however its only short hand if everybody has a joint understanding of the words we are using.

Your example of the jargon used in the Schools sector is a good one. Much of the terminology used in education generally is alien to those that are not familiar with it. I worked in the sector for many years and although to outsiders many of the terms appear to be jargon, everybody involved has a common understanding of the terminology…it’s the language of the ‘business’.

The problem I have with elearning jargon is that we continually feel the need to add to or change the words we use. The debate yesterday came from a question posed by Kate Graham. Should we be using digital learning rather than elearning? Is there difference? Do we need both? We also sometimes use the term learning technologies. When we do, are we only talking about technology we use for learning and not about the learning itself? Do they all actually mean the same thing? I think they do, but others in our community might disagree, in which case the jargon we are using confuses me - it’s little wonder then that we confuse people beyond our community! If we want terminology to spread wider and be understood, we should be consistent.

We also continue to use our jargon beyond our community and are then surprised that we don’t convince senior management when we put forward a business proposal. Capita’s research last year showed that only 18% of Senior Leaders think L & D adds value to the organisation. Using jargon does not help our case.

As for #madeupwords the majority of them are as you say specifically manufactured. Personally I think they do more harm than good as in most cases they are only understood by those ‘in the know’ and alienate those that aren’t. Why use gamification rather than just saying application of gaming concepts and characteristics? It might take longer to say, but at least people will understand what we are talking about.

Comments on Learning Rocks: In defence of jargon

In many ways I agree with you, jargon can be reall...