XplanaZine

Studying languages over the years has taught me a thing or two about consolidation, convergence, and standards. Take Romance Languages, for example. Vulgar, or “popular” Latin was an everyday form of Latin spoken by common people and soldiers. As the Roman Empire spread, soldiers carried this form of Latin into the various regions of Europe. In this way, Vulgar Latin became a common or unifying language for many regions or groups of people.

As the Roman Empire crumbled, and as different regions were isolated from the influence of Rome, Vulgar Latin began to evolve in those provinces where it was the primary language. Over a period of time, Vulgar Latin developed into Proto-Romance which, in turn, spawned a variety of distinct Romance languages such as French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, and Provençal.

What’s interesting about all of this isn’t that Latin disappeared and that these other languages developed, but rather that these languages were actually able to stabilize, consolidate with other regional languages, and become distinct language forms of their own.

Spanish, for example, subsumed or outlived lesser-spoken provincial languages and some Native American languages when it was introduced into the Americas. Over the past eight centuries it has adapted words and phrases from Latin and Arabic to English and Nahuatl. It has survived and become a major world language spoken with close to four hundred million speakers in more than fifteen countries on multiple continents. It is also an important language in trade and communications.

And even with its wide diffusion and a panoply of external influences, we have still arrived at viable standards for Spanish that allow it to be taught and passed on with reasonable accuracy and stability for centuries.

This convergence cycle for languages — from instability and multiple standards and influences to stability and one formal standard — can be broken into four distinct steps.

Fragmentation –> Competition –> Standards –> Consolidation –> Convergence

In the case of Spanish, we can see this pattern as one over-arching schema played out across multiple centuries with each stage providing the structure for the development of the next. The multiple forms facilitated by fragmentation necessarily lead to competition. Competition, in turn, ultimately leads to evolution and the “lock-in” of a primary form around which standards can be registered. Once standards have been created, further consolidation can take place around the “winning” form and the convergence on one dominant form happens.

Compare this, however, with the example of rapidly mutating creole languages that traverse this general cycle in a single generation. Those languages develop over decades as opposed to centuries but, unfortunately, never achieve stability and are systematically replaced by another creole language in the next generation. This mutation or lack of stability occurs because the development cycles of these languages leaves out a key ingredient of the process — standards. Because these languages develop and mutate so rapidly, and because they have no written base, it is impossible for standards to form.

If we take standards out of the convergence cycle competition will continue unchecked and consolidation cannot occur sufficiently for ultimate convergence to happen.

I use languages here in an attempt to provide an intelligible yet neutral example of the convergence cycle, and to show how standards can be essential for the completion of the cycle. Without standards there can be no final lock-in for products or forms. Without standards there can be no stability in the development cycle.

That’s because standards represent more than a list of rules or components. Standards are collaboration and cooperation. Standards are acceptance. Standards are, for all practical purposes, the glue of the development and convergence cycle.

People often ask me about the future of technology in education. What technology will be hot next year? What will teachers be doing in the classroom? What will students be doing online? My answer is this — “It depends on what standards develop.” There are many promising technologies on the horizon but only those organizations and technologies that can be successful in helping standards emerge will last long enough to make a difference.