The term IT seems to be going out of fashion. Just as the world finally got to grips with it (or should I say IT!), someone had the cunning idea of sticking a C in the middle to make ICT, ironically drawing our attention to the inclusion of Communications. By that stage IT was so embedded in our vocabulary that most people chose to ignore the C.
Increasingly (at least in ‘JISC world’) IT is being replaced by technology. Now I’m the first to bemoan the excessive use of acronyms. Many acronyms do little to save time, improve recall or enhance understanding, and to my mind we shouldn’t be using them unless they do at least two of these things. But is technology really a better choice?
Every now and then there is an acronym that is small and perfectly formed. The sleek, uncomplicated lines of an I and a T somehow transcend the acronym’s geeky parents – Information and Technology – and its rather frumpy ancestor, Computers. Joking aside, IT is something that is now universally understood. Seldom do we consider or even care what the acronym stands for; we just know inherently what it means and what sphere it covers, even when new things come under its umbrella.
The trouble with technology is that it has vast scope; it can cover any topic from genetic engineering to nuclear physics. For JISC people technology equals IT because IT is our raison d’être; but for the myriad of audiences with whom we communicate technology has many meanings.
Take for example a (fictional) document entitled ‘Using innovative technologies to benefit higher education’. To a tutor such technologies might include lab apparatus, workshop equipment, replicas or simulators. A university estates manager might see technologies as heating systems or lecture theatre fittings. It could be argued that what we mean by technology is conveyed by the context. After all, JISC do IT stuff, so people expect us to talk about IT stuff and, assuming the reader continues beyond the title, they will soon realise that we are in fact talking about, you’ve guessed it, IT!
At a time when we are reaching out to new audiences, it is vital that we consider their broad understanding of the world and limited knowledge of ours. The art of communication is underpinned by seeing things through other people’s eyes. Even while IT is not everything to all people, the acronym lives on.