The Ed non-Tech (EnT) Podcast

Episode 97: Computer Blue: Naming things in education – the Thagomizer

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Matt’s Notes

Greetings, and welcome to our latest EnT outing! Is this a podcast? A video blog? A teaching resource? Napoleon Bonaparte reincarnated minus everything but the attitude and the bicorne black beaver felt hat? Naming things is always a dicey proposition, and so we’re taking the stegosaurus by the tail as we attempt to address these and other pertinent questions herein and/or hereabouts!

https://youtu.be/cKi1ThCl12w

You can’t spell YouTube… or funky… without “u”! #ednontech

You might be said to be listening! And we might be said to be grateful! #ednontech

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Doug’s Notes
Naming things in education – the Thagomizer

This article is concerned with what people in our area of expertise (profession?) are, or wish to be, called. What would you look under in the Yellow Pages if you wanted to find one?

Geis, G., & Klaassen, J. (1972). It’s a Word, It’s a Name, It’s… an Educational Technologist. Educational Technology, 12(12), 20-22.

Naming creates a relationship even at its very beginning. 

Naming is humanizing, personalising and community building.

Research amongst vocational teachers revealed that ‘the act of naming oneself as a learner is a complex one, which opens up issues related to position, recognition and power’.

O’Brien, M., Leiman, T., & Duffy, J. (2014). The power of naming: The multifaceted value of learning students’ names. QUT Law Review, 14(1), 114-128.

E-learning had been in use as a term for some time by 1999, but the rise of the web and the prefix of “e” to everything saw it come to prominence. 

Weller, M. (2018). Twenty years of EdTech. Educause Review Online, 53(4), 34-48.

EdTech is not just about education, or about technology: much of it is also about business. … Behind the education sector where students and educators interact lies a kind of shadow education industry of business managers, market forecasters, deal-makers, investors, venture philanthropists, and private equity firms. 

Donahoe, B., Rickard, D., Holden, H., Blackwell, K., & Caukin, N. (2019). Using EdTech to enhance learning. International Journal of the Whole Child, 4(2), 57-63.

Does the name make sense?

  • Thagomizer – an arrangement of spikes found on the tails of stegasaurs (https://www.amusingplanet.com/2020/07/thagomizer-why-stegosaurus-spiky-tail.html)
  • Gestetner – brand name for a copying machine
  • Wiki – Hawaiian for quick
  • Learning objects – “a digitized entity which can be used, reused or
  • referenced during technology supported learning.”
  • SCORM – Sharable Content Object Reference Model
  • OER – Open Educational Resource
  • Podcast – Personal On Demand cast
  • RSS – Really Simple Syndication
  • Blog – truncation of weblog
  • Vlog – a video blog
  • MOOC – massive open online course
  • Running writing – cursive writing
  • Quiz – made up buzz word
  • PIN number – personal identification number (number?)
  • Nap – necessary adult pause

    • Taylor, M. (2010). The Shunosaurus tail-club, revisited: spikes, and complex distal caudals.

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    Ways to name things
    • Discover something – comets, mathematical proofs, lifeforms
    • Get famous – Louse (Strigiphilus garylarsoni), Butterfly (Serratoterga larsoni), and Beetle (Garylarsonus)
    • Invent something – petri dish, diesel engine, Graphics Interchange Format (gif)
    • Pay money
      • Naming stories
      • The Ouija Board (Allegedly) Named Itself
      • Scotch Tape is an Insult to the Scottish
      • Heroin Made People Feel Heroic – Bayer medicine
      • Minke Whales Were Named for an Inept Whale Spotter – Meincke
      • The Milky Way Got its Name From a Breastfeeding Goddess – Hera
      • Where the Wild Things Are was initially titled “Land of the Wild Horses.” Author Maurice Sendak changed it upon realizing he couldn’t draw horses.
      • Dempster’s Dumpster
      • Ananas – Pine cones were initially referred to as “pine apples.” The pineapple, as we know it today, acquired its name due to its resemblance to these cones.
      • The “B” in dB, the abbreviation for “decibel,” is capitalized because it is named after Alexander Graham Bell.
      • Guinness book of world records – Sir Hugh Beaver arguing about the fastest game bird
        • Word of the Podcast

        Thagomizer

        Question of the Podcast

        How do names impact learning?

        Phrase of the Podcast

        The notion of technology – what does that even mean now?

        Repeating a theme of lifelong learning throughout the show.

        The floppy cloud

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyKeCYYzIRk

        Poor lonely computer
        Poor, poor lonely computer
        Do you really know what love is? #ednontech

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