Video Transcript of Acronyms
presented by Mark Collard
To begin as a group your objective now is to go through this series of cards and to identify what each of these acronyms are.
For those who are not familiar with an acronym, it means each of these letters, the three letters, is the initial or first letter of a series of words.
So U.F.O stand for…?
(Unidentified flying object)
Bing, you move on to the next card.
Great, next one, P.I.N.
(Personal identification number)
It is personal identification number.
Now it is possible that you can think of more alternative uses for these acronyms. For example these might be the initials of your name, Peter Ian Newton, for example. So you get extra bonus points for the more creative answers you can consider for any of these acronyms.
So A.T.M.
(Automatic Teller Machine)
Automatic teller machine, yes.
(At the moment.)
At the moment. Now this card is very old long before we started texting and e-mailing, and so it has a new form now. Beautiful, excellent, I love it.
I.B.M.
(International business machines)
International business machines, yes, absolutely. Or if you use Apple as your computing platform, I want to be a Macintosh is another version of it.
C.B.C
Yes, Catholic or Christian Boys College, there’s a whole lot for this one. Now we don’t often use it as an acronym, but you may also be familiar with this term and that is Challenge by Choice.
A big piece of any of my work, including the next 30 minutes, I get to share with you, operates under that philosophy. Of where you have the opportunity to choose for yourself your level of participation, and ordinarily in that environment people actually surprise themselves and step outside their ordinarily perceived comfort zones because they feel safe in that environment. That is again whole other conversation, but keep that in mind for the short time you are with me today.
P.H. Hmm you all know what it is, alkaline, acidic. What does the H stand for in the periodic table?
(Hydrogen)
The P is for power or potential for hydrogen. Yeah, there you go.
F.U.B.A.R (Fouled Beyond All Recognition)
You notice how he is (mumbles). Fouled up beyond all recognition, or however you choose to say it. Big piece of the work that I do that I find is exciting and you know I am at the head of engaging people, that is not this session necessarily, but it is the same stuff. Is about adventure. There is something exciting and engaging about not knowing what’s going to happen. So a big part about any program, including today, is that realm of adventure.
Now this is not a right or a wrong. I am about to make a statement here, but if in your program your curriculum if you do this, you do this, you do this, you do a series of activities and you know you are going to get a particular outcome, you are not dealing with experiential education or adventure based learning. I am not saying that is a wrong or a right. I am making a distinction between that and maybe other forms of curriculum.
The piece that I am working with, because I find it the most exciting and the most fun, is adventure. Because it’s engaging, it’s fun, but it is also challenging. It involves people taking risks, making choices, and sometimes they will foul it up beyond all recognition and they’ll F.U.B.A.R it.
That’s a different setting where you do something and you don’t know actually how it’s going turn out. I’ve got a general sense of the boundaries of it. You need to in terms you know of managing risk, but that’s a different setting and that is the work that I am working with in particular.
F.U.N.N. Now a big part of what I do is and it is like the most important tool of my work is that we have fun, but note it has two N’s. If you have come across anything with PA you may know this acronym.
(Functional Understanding Not Necessary)
Yeah, functional understanding not necessary. What it means is that it’s okay to just have fun, but programmatically there is a really powerful reason why I inject a program with lots of fun because it’s attractive. It is really hard to stand away from, but you don’t have to understand what’s going on the have a great time.
So I can guarantee, although our time is short today, you are going to have an outrageous time. There going to be many moments, just like anything that you have done with me already in these last two days. You are going to have a fun time. People complain about sore jaws. But if you were to think in the middle of all that and go “hmm why are we doing this.” Don’t think too hard for an answer. Just simply enjoy it for what it is.
I know as a facilitator or an educator, like you, you’re not given many opportunities to play, and that is really my invitation to you for this session. Stuff happens as a result programmatically and we’ll see that shortly when we come to the end of our session. We’ll understand more about the power of the particular element.
You know how it feels when the clock says it’s time to start, but it’s obvious that not everyone is here. I hate waiting, so I have developed a bunch of really simple, non-threatening activities that can occupy (think ‘reward’) those folks who are on time, yet not disrupt the group’s fun when the late-comers finally appear. I call this my ‘un-official start.’
In advance, grab a magazine, newspaper or both and start flicking through the pages spotting as many acronyms (you know, a word that is formed from the initials of other words) as you can. I’m sure you know many off the top of your head. Write these ‘words’ onto a set of index cards or sheets of paper. You’ll need at least 40 or more.
Can’t think of many, or any? Click the Resources tab to download some samples to get you started.
The basic idea is to present this series of cards, turning one card over at a time, asking your group to decipher as many of the acronyms as they can, in as little time as possible. Get it right (“BING”) and you show the next card. Can’t work it out, either tell them the answer, or put the card aside to work on later as you move onto the next one.
Continue flipping cards until you sense the energy is about to wane, or you have achieved your objectives.
And, hey, did you know that A C R O N Y M is really an acronym? A Contrived Reduction Of Nomenclature Yielding Mnemonics, or Abbreviated Codes Rarely Or Never Yielding Meaning? Or, how about Annoyingly Cryptic References Of Names You Make-up?
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