Jargon

There is a huge difference between the "business world" and the "education world." In my job as technology director for a school district, I am often talked at by salesmen attempting to get me to purchase some piece of technology or some online service. These salesmen tend to break down into one of two kinds: 1) former educators now working as salesmen, or 2) pure salesmen who have been in the "business" world all along.

I can usually spot which of the two camps any salesman falls into, and it usually has to do with which type of jargon the saleman uses. Former educators use EDUCATION jargon ("This software takes your core curriculum and your aligned standards and uses a formative assessment to map back to these standards so that your professional learning communities can better plan a response to intervention!") while salesmen with a business background use BUSINESS jargon ("Our software company is well positioned to provide a 21st century virtual, embraced paradigm!"). I'll be honest, in both cases, I don't understand what the salesmen are saying about half the time. And half the time, I don't think they do, either.

However, if you want to SOUND like one of these salesmen, I have a couple of websites for you.

Website Number One will generate some meaningless edu-garble that you can throw into any conversation with educators. You can complete the sentence, "To be successful today, educators need to ____________." Will the generator throw out "assess mission-critical curriculum" or "innovate compelling functionalities?" It doesn't matter. Either way you'll sound super smart and be saying nothing!

Website Number Two will generate similarly meaningless business-garble. You can complete sentences like "The secret of our company's success is the ______________." Hit the button, and you might get "harmonized, focused mindset" as the answer, or maybe "tactical, integrated synergy." It's all blah blah blah any way you look at it.