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By Rick Nigol
 A recent Chief Learning Officer
magazine electronic newsletter carried a press release about Thomson
Learning and Tata Interactive Systems collaborating on a new project
called the Thomson Learning Lot. According to the press
release,
"Tata will...develop systems
for content-creation work flow, as well as for publishing and
archiving objects, then rendering the learning material on the
portal... The project involves combining such technology as LAMS,
DSpace, Fedora, Zoomla, uPortal and so on...This is another example
of the Web 2.0 software-as-a-service (SaaS) approach where various
open-source softwares are used."
Huh? After reading the entire announcement top to
bottom, I still have no idea what the Thomson Learning Lot is, why
it exists, who's lives it will improve, or why I should care. This
is because the entire message is presented in impenetrable
jargon.
I realize that every field has its own language
and is prone to jargon. However, I think the eLearning field takes
it to a new level. If you want proof, just go to the website of an
eLearning software vendor, or attend an eLearning conference, or
read an eLearning magazine or journal. The speech or prose is often
laden with jargon that is exclusionary of those not on the "inside"
and makes eLearning seem much more mysterious and complicated and
costly than it need be.
I think that such exclusionary language works
against the interest of the field because it scares off those we may
be asking to invest in eLearning projects. We would be much better
off speaking to potential clients or key stakeholders (i.e. those
controlling the purse strings) by using plain, straight-forward
English (or French, or Farsi, or Chinese, etc.)
In the meantime, however, there are ways to cut
through the jargon. I offer the following translations of key
eLearning terminology for the uninitiated.
"We offer a robust, stable,
and fully-scalable enterprise-wide LMS solution to facilitate
competency development across the organization."
Translation: We hope this newest
version of our eLearning software does not crash and burn when it
has more than five users on it at time.
"Our plug-and-play open
architecture approach facilitates interoperabilty and is based on
industry standards for Web deployments (XML, SOAP or AQ) and
supports major learning standards (AICC, SCORM, IMS, and
IEEE)."
Translation: Our eLearning
software plays well with others.
"Our product is an
integrated, field-configurable, shrink-wrapped
application."
Translation: To be honest, I
haven't figured this one out yet, but I think it must be well
packaged.
So the next time someone tries to snow you with
eLearning jargon, ask them to translate it in such a way that your
grandma or grandpa would understand. If they can't, don't do
business with them. Because, if we cannot get past the jargon, we
cannot focus on what is truly important. And sometimes the jargon
hides the fact that the person using it has nothing important to
say.
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