What is Technology Education?

The future belongs to young people who know where the knowledge is, how to get it, how to think about it, and how to turn it into better work, better products, better lives.
- Rexford Brown, Executive Director
P.S. 1 Charter School and Urban Learning Communities, Inc.

Technology Education is human innovation in action. It involves the generation of knowledge and processes to develop systems that solve problems and extend human capabilities. It's goals is to provide technological literacy to all students, including all students who traditionally have not been served by technology programs.

As a society, we are becoming increasingly dependant on technology. In order to become informed and responsible decision-makers, students must understand the ways in which technology may be used to change and control our environment, and it’s effect on humanity and the world. In order to understand technology education, we must establish “What exactly is technology?” Stemming from the Greek work “techne,” meaning art or craft, technology literally means the act of making or crafting. Broadly speaking, technology is how people modify the natural world to suit their own purposes. Technology Education has evolved over the past fifteen to twenty years from Industrial Arts programs, and is just beginning to establish a new identity.

Industrial Arts vs. Technology Education

Content Base		Methodology
Ind. Arts	Tech. Ed.	Ind. Arts	Tech. Ed.
Based on the tools, materials, and processes of industry.	Based on the systems, processes, and impacts of technology.	Students complete a series of projects to build the skills of a craftsperson.	Students solve design problems to more effectively use, manage, assess and understand technology

Relationship Between Knowledge & Skill		What kind of students are we servicing?
Ind. Arts	Tech. Ed.	Ind. Arts	Tech. Ed.
Skills are followed by conceptual knowledge. Example: Learn about screws and nails because they are required to hold a crafted object together.	Skills are preceded by conceptual knowledge. Example: Build a CO2 dragster in order to understand the process of design & construction.	Students bound for technical occupations, largely consisting of male student.	Directed toward all students in order to help them become responsible citizens.

Technology Education vs. Educational Technology

Technology Education		Educational Technology
Teaches about technology A school subject Ultimate goal: Technological literacy for all students		Teaches with technology A means of teaching Ultimate goal: Improving the process of teaching and learning