Jargon of the week

Here are two pieces of jargon which I have taken a fancy to recently.

• Creative disobedience. (From Inga Paterson at Abertay) It's a term used to describe what architects do when they defy the conventions of architectural space. Does it mean disobedience by not staying within the creative "rules" for generating new architecture? Or might it mean that the architects are being disobedient in some way, but at least they are doing so creatively? I'm not sure. I bet schools are just brimming with creative disobedience in the latter sense, but we need plenty more of it in the first sense. we should encourage the little children to explore and break design rules, and generally be inquisitive about them.
• Ontological innovation. (From Yishay Mor and Niall Winters). Ontology is the study of existence, the study of what is, and how things in the world can be categorised. How very grand! Ontological innovation is about discovering new categories of things in the world, which might explain better how the world works. Of course, educational research- particularly design-based research - is about discovering frameworks which help us better understand how people learn. (That's what I do). Imagine the conversation at the proverbial cocktail party:

"What do you do, Judy?"

"I am an ontological innovater"

"My,my. That must be an interesting line of work. What do you do?"

"I play with lego all day".

And, dear reader, if you happen to be one of my students, I would like to assure you that this is mere fancy. I am, naturally, marking your assignments with great diligence and pleasure. Not playing with lego. No, indeed.