Hey there! Welcome one and most to this uh… dual-purpose episode of the EnT, falling as the recording session did… on both Easter Sunday and also 4/20! To get full stunt production value out of this convergence, we are releasing two different but in some ways thematically overlapping issues within a short timespan! First up is our chat on repossessing education from the throes of bad jargon and the accompanying lack of attendant conceptual clarity!

Video capable, if you’ve gumption enough! #ednontech

We’ve got your (semantic) back, Jack! #ednontech

To my mind, any conversation that I get to have with Dr. Doug Reid is pure gold!

Let’s be really real here for a moment! Due to the incessant deluge of chaos from certain significant geopolitical entities, it’s hard to believe how much things have changed in many of our lives since the beginning of 2025!

I’ve said for months now that mental health and wellness are vital! You have to be proactive, in my opinion! Those who have observed my recent pivot in terms of my very specific and intentional uses of Meta apps, particularly Facebook, may have some questions at what some of the actions there signify on a wider scale! Let me say first that anyone who has asked directly has received a proper explanation! These parties include my mom, my dad, my students at Keyano, my kids, my best friend, and my podcasting partners!

In full transparency, I am engaged in a valid form of peaceful protest of what I perceive as propagandistic tactics and approaches by various state and non-state entities by emulating social media’s algorithmic content sharing practices and exponential reach through a highly porous and ad hoc social networking “outer layer”. This porous outer layer of social interactions is actually a small subset of how Meta makes money off secondary and tertiary marketing of aggregated heaps of mega-data to various other commercial and noncommercial enterprises and entities and actors.

As such…

I’m essentially using the features of Facebook to offer a critique of the platform and problems associated with rendering significant cultural issues down to clickbait in between highly problematic ads, with a user ecosystem rife with malicious, dishonest user accounts… and a great, great many bots!

At some point, a wider and deeper explanation of the mindset that led to this, the practices, and lessons learned may be warranted! At the moment it is simply interesting to discover new areas of practice within the ed tech endeavor which I have been participating in for nearly twenty years!

Thanks as ever to Doug for a compelling topic and a great conversation!

For my educational non-dollar, I’d strongly recommend this interview with one of the greatest actors of his, or any, generation!

What is the youthful mind curious about – at least till we deaden it with our preposterous schools – but about these very marvels of creation which we do our best to spoil for him with our learned jargon and our grammar rules?

Atkinson, W. (1872). Primary School Education. (2), 46-46.

The use of jargon in education is a problem where it is not used consistently. This inconsistency limits how people within the profession communicate with each other and also how those professionals communicate with others.

Hollingshead, S. L. P. (1994). The use of jargon in education, 1920-1990. University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

This book is good reading when you have just a few flee moments and when you have had a conversation with a teacher and are not quite sure about the terminology mentioned. Bottom line: Essential.

Jargon book is a terminology book through which preservice language teachers keep significant terms and methods that are related to language teaching.

Özkan, Y. (2018). Fostering reflectivity through jargon books in a teacher education context. PASAA, 55(1), 32-56.

… the use of jargon may be confusing to individuals without similar training, which could be a hindrance to successful interdisciplinary work, such as in consultation with schoolteachers.
Martin, S. (2022). The Effects of Jargon on School-Based Consultation (Master’s thesis, University of Kansas).

https://www.sciencegeek.net/lingo.html

Jargon

How can educators engage with jargon that welcomes others to this discipline?

MCAA – Make competence awesome again