Resources
BuzzWords: recording 10 years of language change
M
acmillan Dictionary’s popular BuzzWords column celebrates its 10th anniversary this month. First published in 2003 as weekly online articles, the BuzzWords column was created to identify and capture new words and phrases as they emerged in the English language.
Looking back, Kerry Maxwell, author of the BuzzWord articles, recalls the daunting task of starting BuzzWords 10 years ago: “I thought the prospect of starting a weekly column about new developments in the English language sounded interesting, but challenging, too. Were there really enough new words out there and where would we find them?”
Soon Maxwell found that there was plenty to write about, and the BuzzWord column grew to become a significant dictionary resource that captured language development, and identified the social and political changes that influenced those advances.
“By recording these changes as they happened”, Maxwell explains, “we’ve managed to keep our finger on the pulse of language change, and made observations at a pace which would have been unthinkable 20 years ago.” It’s no surprise to anyone that changes in language occur with major developments, but the BuzzWords column has managed to keep track of these changes as and when they happened, capturing future trends in words and phrases, before they became mainstream.
Kerry Maxwell’s full article on 10 years of BuzzWords is available on the blog:
www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/happy-10th-birthday-buzzword
Midshire’s zero tolerance on second class ICT for schools M
idshire Business Systems’ new IT manager Phil Marshall says heads are getting second class treatment from some schools’ suppliers.
Appointed from 20 years in the healthcare IT industry, Marshall started his new role with Stockport based Midshire by investigating current supply arrangements of more than 20 schools across the UK. What he found, he says, is that many are putting up with ICT support that is built to fit the supplier, rather than the school.
The wrong fit
“For many I’ve spoken to, logging ICT issues in a book for the contractor’s weekly or fortnightly visit is the norm,” says Marshall. “That’s just unacceptable; it wouldn’t be acceptable in business so why should our schools have to wait while the rest of the world expects rapid response as standard?
“Worse, once the ICT support arrives the contractor merely goes through the log and fixes the faults – there’s no intelligent approach to working with the school’s needs, or looking into why problems occur and how to avoid them in the future.
“All of it is compounded by huge differences in prices with no apparent difference in service – I’ve found some schools paying double for the same service that’s delivered to a school just a few miles away. Balancing the budget has never been so challenging for schools, and it’s not
February 2013
made any easier by some contractors who give other, fair, operators a bad name.”
A name you can trust
His investigation of current services across different schools took place as Midshire, a trusted supplier of print, hardware and ICT support in the education sector, examined further ways to develop its schools’ services.
“An honest and concise audit was conducted by Midshire. That has allowed us to have a clear vision of computer hardware required in order to move our ICT curriculum forward.”
Emma Riley, Leader of Learning Technologies Gorsefield Primary School, Bury
“Midshire always aims to be a lot more proactive, identifying problems before they arise. At one Manchester school we found that the deputy head’s PC had just 5% of hard drive space free, slowing things down considerably. Her ICT support people hadn’t checked it and she was just putting up with the wait.
Going the extra mile
“Just a bit of thought makes all the difference and a good supplier will give the school that thought instead of miss-selling. I keep coming across schools with two servers for example, one in use and one in a cupboard. The school
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has been sold a new one when the old one could have been upgraded much more cheaply. “Also we offer an exchange and disposal service which really makes a difference to continuity of service. We know kids are tough on kit, so the spec for classroom kit is always the most robust we can find. And, if they do manage to break an iPad for example, we’ll collect and replace it while we take it away for repair, so lessons can get back to normal as fast as possible; a service we believe is unique.” Midshire guarantees to find the best prices for schools. It is already working to match or beat the prices of a number of LEA’s – and pass on the savings. This year the company will be offering the service to more across the UK. u0161 494 3370
uwww.midshire.co.uk
www.education-today.co.uk 27
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