Words, Phrases and Acronyms that Bug Me

56 comments fun, rants

Dec 01

In no particular order.

PLN (too inside baseball)
21st Century Learning/Skills (everyone has a different idea of what it means, plus how far into the century do we have to go before we stop using it)
Web 2.0 (most people have no idea what Web 1.0 was)
preso (I want to take a shower after hear that word, very used car salesmanishy)
calling a movie a slideshow (happens when you create a video with a lot of stills)
"at this point in time" (a fancy way of saying now)
"that being said" (a fancy way of saying but)
"could care less (wait. what are you saying?)
'za' as in let's get some '[piz]za' (I can honestly say I've only heard this used on very rare occasion but I would have to punch you if you said it. Almost as bad as 'coff" for "coffee")
calling a blog post, a blog. "That's a great blog you wrote today"
Speedy Creek (only SK folks will get that one, I could never call Moose Jaw, "The Jaw")
LOL (this might well be the first time I've ever typed that)
Peeps (I could never be cool enough to use that term, plus a barely know what it means)

I'm not losing any sleep or anything, just wanted to get that off my chest. Now it's your turn. Whaddya got?

cc licensed flickr photo shared by tomswift46

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http://blog.scottjelias.net Scott Elias

"Having said that" which is a synonym for "therefore" or "however" depending on the inflection.
"Ping me." Or "I'll ping you." Or any variation thereof. Please.
Any manipulation of a word to make it sound cute and Twitter-related. e.g. "Tweeps," "Tweeple,"
"RTI"
And I have to add my second for "PLN." Unless you're in one or have one, you don't know what it is so it's completely useless beyond your "PLN."
And the "blog" / "blog post" conundrum is like fingernails on a chalkboard for me. You wouldn't look at a single pine tree and call it a "forest," right?
http://daveswhiteboard.com Dave Ferguson

Affordances. They're like features, but much cooler. Or more philosophical.
Lower-case Es with hyphens in front of perfectly innocent words. e-portfolio (not as grating as e-Portfolio, but still in the running).
Nearly anything Twitter-related (tools, add-ons) that begins with TW. There are 24 other letters riding the bench.
http://openphd.wordpress.com Lisa Chamberlin

Well, thanks. Now you've made me self-conscious about two-thirds of my vocabulary for my conference proposal about using Web 2.0 to build 21st Century Learning Skills for USDLA. Guess I will just have to get some coff and start over – lol. I'm pretty sure you couldn't care less, but maybe my peeps in my PLN will help me come up with some new words. Then I can write a blog about it. That being said, at this point in time I may just stick with what I've got – the due date is Dec 4th.
Later!

http://ideasandthoughts.org Dean Shareski

Lisa,

That ranks in the top 5 of my best comments ever.
Kristine Placek @k_placek

Love it Lisa – I am sure you will be great!

Gayle

“retarded” bothers me, especially when it’s “duh, I felt so…” See, I can’t even say the whole thing. It’s offensive.

I also cringe at STEM, “clicker” (student response pad) and “going rogue.”
Jen Wagner

Really like what you said and agree with much of it……….
some more to add:
1. Amazing (used way too much for things that are not even close)
2. Echo Chamber (who is it, what is it?? Two years ago I had an idea, not sure any more)
3 The word "I" instead of "Us" and "Our"
4. Acronyms for things that give a "club like" feeling….you only know it if you are part of the group — yes PLN could be just one such example.
5. Tech — just tired of the distinction. Just want to hear about Teaching.
6. Anything that has been twitterfied (sighs, I just did it myself!)
Just adding my thoughts -
Jen
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http://cogdogblog.com/ Alan Levine

LOL, peeps, that's a great blog you wrote today. That being said, I was enjoying some coff and cold za when I caught this in my PLN. At this point in time, I am working it into my Web2.0 slideshow for my preso on 21st Century Learning/Skills

cya l8r down in The Jaw
http://www.ijohnpederson.com John Pederson

"Get off my lawn." (Old Man Shareski 2009).

http://ideasandthoughts.org Dean Shareski

“And turn down that music!”

http://barrydahl.com Barry Dahl

How about the way the word "interactive" is used so loosely in education? "I have created this great interactive content for my classes!" Excuse me, but I find it hard to believe that an inanimate object suddenly came to life for the purpose of interacting with me. To interact, there needs to be another human on the other end (or at least some highly developed artifical intelligence). Makes as much sense as saying that I am interacting with my chair by sitting on it.
http://www.theventurousedge.com Heather Voran

Lisa, thanks for a good laugh!
Freakin' or frikken'–we all know what they really mean…just plain offensive. I heard one of them used in a keynote for a K-12 educational conference, and I found it to be so unprofessional the speaker lost me after that.
http://www.apaceofchange.com Damian

"Totes" (short for 'totally') gets under my skin. Oh, also when people say "that's gay" when they really mean "I don't like that" or "I don't understand that".
http://blog.scottjelias.net Scott Elias

I forgot to add my all-time, least-favorite, made-up, edu-speak word of all time: EduPunk.

Seriously. Just stop it with that.
http://emisegadis.blogspot.com Erin Misegadis

One that kills me in education is when I hear teachers say "these kids" instead of "our" or "my" kids/students. It makes me think that the teacher has no connection with the students or his/her role as an educator. It really makes me more sad than irritated though…
Overall it just really bugs me when people mispronounce words. If you can't say it properly, find another word to use!
Oh, and when I hear someone say "we was" instead of "we were"…
Carey Pohanka

My number one is "irregardless". Um, hello, it is not a word!

http://ideasandthoughts.org Dean Shareski

That should have been on my list too.

http://pwoessner.com Pat Woessner

Education buzzwords in general drive me crazy; best practice, authentic, and transparent are high on my list. I posed a similar question a while back: http://pwoessner.com/2009/04/12/jettison-the-jargon-buzzwords-20/  and was surprised at some of the responses.
http://edinsanity.com Jon Becker

"The data says…"
http://ninmah.be Rachel Smith

Wow, and I thought I was neurotic about words. I see I'm in good company I love a good rant! Thanks, Dean.
My top two are specifically grammar-related: I hate it when "quality" is misused as an adjective (it's a noun! you can't have "quality learning materials!" high-quality or low-quality ones, yes). My other pet peeve is when people mix up "criteria" and "criterion." Several criteria. One criterion. Don't know why, but that just burns my biscuits.
As for the acronyms, abbreviations, and that sort of thing, I find that there are just too many to get personally peeved by any one in particular. Hate 'em all, and let the ed-techies sort 'em out.
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http://www.audreyjwilliams.com AJ

Good comment, Lisa!
I am guilty of a few of these and Twitter doesn't help me since I need to pare down the characters so why write "presentation" when "preso" works and saves characters?
That said, irregardless of what the data says, my pet peeve phrase is "PIN number".
Eric Crosbie

Dean, do you know what is worse then LOL? LOLz, it is the new "hip" way of saying it. Even though I know no one who LOLz.

http://ideasandthoughts.org Dean Shareski

That’s just way too cool for me.

Grant Taylor

PIN number,SIN number, HIV virus,all bad. My pick for the worst, however, is "impact" as a verb, instead of "affects." I think people think it has more– punch, shall we say? I've recently started yelling at my TV when I hear it..

On a related note, have others noticed that on CTV there is a misplaced comma? "This programs contains violence and scenes, which might disturb some viewers." (To the best of my memory) I'm always disturbed by shows with scenes. As well, the little blip ad for Lie to Me has Tim Roth saying, "She doesn't believe a word she just said," while the text reads, "She doesn't believe a THING she just said," (Or maybe vice versa. Wrong, anyway.)
http://readlisaread.edublogs.org/ LisaRead

I got yelled at (by my 13 year old) for saying "Deffo" the other day. She said "What are you, 15!?!?!" (with scorn and contempt in her voice). So, add "deffo" to your list, especially on behalf of 40-year-old Canadian women

http://ideasandthoughts.org Dean Shareski

What if I told you I’ve never heard that term before? From a 45-year-old Canadian man.

http://www.larkin.net.au/ John Larkin

Your post reminds me of our current Prime Minister in Australia who comes up with words like "specificity".
"The Prime Minister has a tendency to turn a verb into a noun, thus forcing him to then find another verb to drive the new noun. For example, rather than say "we will implement the policy next month", Rudd would say "we will be finalising the implementation of the policy next month"." (The Canberra Times)
People also write letters to the editors of newspapers so that they can show off their vocabulary rather than make a point. Yesterday in a letter about Australian politicians and the climate change debate one letter writer used the word "autolysis" to describe the current situation in Australian politics. I had to look it up. It means: "The enzymatic digestion of cells by enzymes present within them." Why not use a term like "self-destruction"?
At times I am tied up with the terms you have described Dean as I am asked to run a workshop on 'this' or 'that'. It is a little frustrating. "21st century skills" has always annoyed the crap out of me. They are just skills. Even the word "pedagogy" gets on my goat at times. ^_^

http://ideasandthoughts.org Dean Shareski

Interesting to hear perspectives from other countries. Thanks John.

http://edulicious.com brett

really tired of digital native.

http://ideasandthoughts.org Dean Shareski

Brett,
I can’t believe I missed that one.

http://kylewebb.edublogs.org/ Kyle Webb

I laughed when I read this because when I lived in Speedy Creek (Swift Current) playing hockey, everyone always called Moose Jaw "The Jaw".
Grant Taylor

Just noticed this. After looking back at the comment regarding "freakin'" and "frickin" I noticed at the bottom of the page that we write these comments with the "fckeditor." Sorry, but I really did lol.
Kim Cavanaugh

My least favorite phrase is one that is totally overused in the tech industry for some reason: “At the end of the day..,,,”
http://educationinnovation.typepad.com Rob Jacobs

Response to Intervetion. Makes me look around for the psychologist and the couch. Also, I always capitalize the "t" and that is a major educational mistake.
Dyads and Triads confuse me too. Sounds very tribal. I like pairs or groups of three.
aggregate- I thought that was rock.

Brain Based Learning; is there another kind of learning? Liver based learning or pinky toe learning??
Cohorts- sounds like a skin problem.
http://cogdogblog.com/ Alan Levine

Beyond being a smart****, I'll add some to the heap.
* "monetize" – educators fortunately don;t use it, but will stop reading almost anything that uses that word
* fluff words people use to sounds more aloof, like using "in order to" when all you have to say is "to"
* anything close to that phrase with "guide/side/sagestage"
* in addtion to PLN, through in PLE,VLE, and heck toss on the fire, LMS
* "technology is just a tool"
* "______ is dead" in referring to anything other than living beings
http://www.everythingedtech.com Chris Bell

Hmm…kept trying to reply to a comment above (Digital Natives), but the editor kept producing a 'null' value. Anyways, I agree with Brett. So tired of that conversation–why continue to belabor the point?
http://mikecaulfield.com Mike Caulfield

I don't know what the solution is, b/c I used it all the time, but the proliferation of "X-based learning" has to end, or at least slow: Team-based Learning, Project-based Learning, Student-based Learning, Inquiry-Based Learning. I don't know what the solution is to this. The recent solution some do is to just replace "based" with "centered", which automatically updates any 80s or 90s theory into a late aughts theory, as in
"Inquiry-based learning is so 90s — I do inquiry-centered learning."
But that's not really solving anything.
I guess why I resent it is I'm forced to use it, b/c these things do refer to meaningful methodologies, but it makes things that are really helpful sound like just the latest model of buzzword. I'd rather say something like "Michaelsen's team approach" than team-based learning (ugh, it feels so HR coming out of my mouth….)
I also hate people using the phrase "What up?" as a variation of "What's up?". I have a good friend that does this all the time and I have never had the courage to tell her that sends me into facial tics.
I also agree that "za", while rare, is a word that could spur me to violence, potentially. It is really weird — I have no idea why I react to it that way, but it just makes me incredibly angry.
http://mikecaulfield.com Mike Caulfield

I'd just add that I disagree on 21st century skills — while it may not be as useful as it might be internally, of all the things I've tried to use externally to get the point across to students and people outside of teaching, 21st century skills really causes people to think for a minute, rather than just react. I know it annoys some people, but it is just incredible useful at the moment….

http://ideasandthoughts.org Dean Shareski

Mike, I’m assuming you use the term in context with some explanations. My beef with it as well as PLN and digital native is that without some type of discussion, it has little value because either people don’t know what it means or have so many definitions, that it has no value.

http://laroncarter.wordpress.com LaRon Carter

You blog casted my man in the pic for the right role Dean. I could take mad notes listening to this guy's stories. I'm sure he'd have some phrases I haven't heard.
http://hotelratesinvegas.com/ Craig

What an excellent blog you have here! In my mission to start my own writing blog this has given me real inspiration!
Thanks
Rich Washabaugh

The latest administrative platitude that drives me up a wall: "it is what it is". Thank you, Mr. Potato Head, for saying nothing and wasting valuable oxygen.

http://ideasandthoughts.org Dean Shareski

That’s funny.

http://metcarolann@wordpress.com Carolann

Actually let people keep using the words. (I am tired of them too) It makes it much easier to tell who is trying to look like they are smart from those who are. I'm trying to be positive for the month of December.
http://k12edubuzz.com Jean Tower

I think jargon often comes across as trying too hard to sound "in the know" or cool. Everyone had good lists here and some comments were really funny.
I will add a few to the growing list:
in agreeance
sitch (for situation)
drill down
not my zoo, not my zebra
going foward
http://language.worldofcomputing.net Robin

Weblog
LOL
http://www.ppt-templates.net PowerPoint Templates

The one I dislike the most is about beating a dead horse
Grant Taylor

As I once heard it put, "When the horse dies, dismount."

BTW, I couldn't reply to a specific post, the comment box had the word "null" and no typing was possible.
http://www.zoombits.co.uk/ink/cartridges ink cartridges

The one I don't like is LOL…..It sounds ugly…..and take back all the laugh I had.
http://www.bloggingonthebay.org Bill Gaskins

My skin crawls when a presenter tells us and brags about his/her PowerPoint….You think PowerPoint will change our life or you just said some so powerful…..
http://cthompson.edublogs.org Claire Thompson

Your post reminded me of a conference I attended three and a half years ago. The term (phrase?) web 2.0 was being bandied about by a lot of presenters. No one was really explaining what web 2.0 was though; I didn't know what it meant and so I felt excluded. If we want more of our colleagues to be using technology to enhance their learning and teaching we can't be using exclusive terminology, because, well, it excludes people!
Now here is more for the list:
- "my bad"–especially when uttered by a grown-up
- "24/7"–never liked it
- "very unique"–it is either unique or it isn't
Thanks for making me think and for bringing out my inner grumpy old man (love the photo!)
http://gwegner.edublogs.org/ Graham Wegner

I especially hate “woot” especially when used in Twitter by Australians. And only D’Arcy Norman can make the word “borked” sound cool – another one for the Aussie drawl to avoid. And one more while I’m at it – people who only identify their location online by using a US state abbreviation. (WA? Washington or Western Australia?)

http://ideasandthoughts.org Dean Shareski

woot is bad.

http://openphd.wordpress.com Lisa Chamberlin

Heard an annoying one on TV last night…"That's dope!" in reference to a quality singing performance – not an arrest by TV detectives. I assume it was "high" praise…
I'm out.
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rose

The one I dislike the most is about beating a dead horse
——————–
rose
Outsourcing
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http://www.starcol.org starcol.org

bad
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