Reports from the CETIS Vocabularies Project

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/elp_vocabularies.html

Wow, what can one say, these reports from the Cetis Vocabularies Project are nothing if not exhaustive. Pretty well everything one could ever want to know about controlled vocabularies for pedagogical resources are contained in these three reports. And if you needed more evidence of the width of the gap between the ‘big standards‘ approach to learning resources and where the best minds of the loosely coupled elearning blogosphere seem to be going, well look no further.

I am really in no position to cast stones; I’d be lucky if my house were made out of even glass, and I sure ain’t without sin. But the 121 pages that comprise the first two survey reports, the Pedagogical Vocabularies Review and the Vocabulary Management Technologies Review, seem hardly to justify the tepid 7 page ‘Recommendations’ document that follows. Study study study, disseminate, more study, pilot a bit, repeat. Sorry guys, I wish I could be more enthusiastic about this; I want to take succour in the belief we can control the growing chaos, find sense through old patterns and methods, but you know what, I can’t do it anymore, I have seen the light, and this is not it. Whoa, dude, your unconscious is showing…put on a towel or something, at least! – SWL