OLDaily

Welcome to Online Learning Daily, your best source for news and commentary about learning technology, new media, and related topics. We publish six to eight or so short posts every weekday linking to the best, most interesting and most important pieces of content in the field. Read more about what we cover. We also list papers and articles by Stephen Downes and his presentations from around the world.

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"Eduspeak" Reconsidered
Alfie Kohn, 2022/11/04

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I think this is mostly a pretty good article about educational jargon, though I think Alfie Kohn has missed a big elephant in the room. Why is the use of education jargon so objectionable? he asks. "Sometimes the lingo itself can be off-putting, particularly if it consists of buzzwords that are imprecise, clichéd, or gratingly euphemistic.... we grumble when the tribalism shades into elitism, when the users of jargon seem to be advertising how important they are... Mostly, though, we react because we don't understand what the hell they're talking about." I think he's missed a really big possibility: that the speaker is using jargon to cover up the fact that they don't know what they're talking about. If the speaker actually understood the subject, they could explain it clearly, and if they can't explain it clearly, they don't really understand what they're talking about.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Clowning can improve teaching | Wonkhe
Gustavo Espinoza Ramos, WonkHe, 2022/11/04

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OK, I don't think that being a clown itself can improve teaching (certainly not being the clown pictured for this article) but there is an element of truth to Gustavo Espinoza Ramos's observation, though it has nothing to do really with being funny or telling stories. Here's how I would draw out the lesson, following Mike Bullard's school of comedy:

1. Find something you have in common with your audience
2. Bring them around to your point of view
3. Make them laugh at themselves

Now in teaching, obviously, the point isn't to make people laugh at themselves, but through the same process they can learn about themselves, and this maybe just maybe might make them want to do something about it.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Reimagine your approach to leadership development
Joe Carver, Chief Learning Officer - CLO Media, 2022/11/04

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Sometimes it's not a good idea to personalize your articles. Joe Carver writes, "over the past year, it struck me: Rather than developing leaders through a series of required, standardized training, we would be better served to assess leaders in a series of competencies that are required to be successful in their jobs. Then, we could build content to help them grow only in the competencies where they have skill gaps." Now given that people have been talking about this idea for decades, you don't want to say you only thought of it this year. Even better, through, would to visit the school of Google for a couple of hours and then try to dig a little deeper.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]