[Yr7-10it] Re buzz words from 22/11....

[Russell Edwards]

On 30/11/2007, at 8:56 AM, Adrian Janson wrote:
> The fact that you felt that the keynote was not relevant to you and  
> was too reliant on ‘buzz-words’ is a concern to me.  Personally I  
> feel that this is just the sort of keynote that I want to see.  One  
> that has vision and is positive and thought-provoking.

You have hit the nail on the head when you said _reliant_ on  
buzzwords. Usually buzzwords come about because there's an underlying  
new idea that's visionary and thought-provoking as you point out.  
However, all too often people just drop the buzzword merely in order  
to associate themselves with a presently fashionable idea.  I'm not  
opposed to using buzzwords per se if they're actually being used as  
part of a discussion of that new idea, exploring its implications,  
presenting evidence for or against it, etc.

Jimbo Wales would be a good example of that type of presentation, if  
you've ever picked a vod- or podcast of one. He drops buzzwords all  
over the place when talking about Wikipedia, but they come along with  
numerous penetrating insights into the nature of collaboration and  
learning and the implications of the environment in which these take  
place.  He makes great observations or even just assertions, but he  
follows them up thoroughly with the reasoning that is behind them and  
what evidence he has for them, presenting counter-arguments and  
refuting them and giving a few accessible examples to drive the  
message home.

This is the type of presentation I'd love to see-- I think you'd  
probably agree.   I just didn't think the keynote I saw came close to  
achieving that.  We seem to be expected to take assertions at face  
value because they fit with the "feeling of the time", without being  
convinced by argument, analysis or evidence... and sometimes it's even  
worse, and you can't even work out what point they're trying to make.

Russell Edwards
Whittlesea Secondary College