Technology Education Essay – August 2002 – Part 2

This discussion of the relevance of technology education can also be extended to examining where the focus of learning lies. For example in the area of computing, educators have often traditionally taught students HOW to use computers, rather than WHY to use computers. This is something that can be observed in secondary classrooms today. Students can often be found learning the general principles of computing, but not how to apply these principles to further learning. It needs to be understood by both students and educators that ‘learning’ technology often does not have merit in itself, rather it is how technology is used to improve other things that is important.

“Technology needs to become a tool for learning, not another subject to teach…(a teachers) primary goal is to use technology to supplement learning rather than teaching technology in isolation. The use of computers should be so infused that the students think that technology is part of the natural learning process. “ (Campbell)

The need for technology education to be relevant requires that educational settings carefully monitor what changes occur in the real world, in industry as well as every day life. Some argument can be made that any technology learning that occurs is valuable, regardless of how relevant it is, because learning HOW to learn technology can promote students learning new skills independently in the future. However it is important to ensure that the skills taught to students match as closely as possible the skills that they will require in the future.

In a real world sense, one of the most obvious problems with technology education is the cost factor. As we discussed previously, it is important to make sure that what is being taught is relevant to the real world. However the latest and most relevant technology is by nature often very expensive. For example in the area of computing, computers are often outdated less than a year after they are bought, and many software packages are updated even more frequently. As well as the need to continuously update hardware and software there are often extra features such as digital cameras, scanners, colour printers etc that have to be bought, not to mention floppy disks, printing paper, ink cartridges and other consumables. For a school, with a limited budget, it can be very difficult to meet these costs.

All of these costs also serve to divide learners into groups of those who can afford to access the latest technology and those who can’t.

“For the most part, poor children still do not have access to the same school choices and chances that children from better off families do - one example is in computers. Between teachers and administrators there is a sense that technology is creating not just another gap, but a bigger gap between the haves and the have-nots in public education, between poor kids and well-to-do kids.” (Bainbridge)

This is perhaps one of the problems in technology education that is hardest to address. Funds for new computers and equipment do not simply appear out of thin air. The problem is made worse by the fact that computers do not really replace many of the old costs associated with education, they are simply new costs on top of the old ones. Unfortunately there are no obvious solutions to this problem, as once the technology becomes cheap enough to be affordable it is out of date. Technology in schools will continue to be funded through a combination of government funding and school fund-raising activities, as has traditionally been the case. While it can be demonstrated that schools need a substantially bigger budget to maintain up to date technology, political reality dictates that there are many other urgent areas in need of funds that also must be considered. The only real action that can be taken by schools is to make sure that their systems are as ‘future-proof’ as possible, eg they can be easily upgraded when necessary.

Yet another hot topic in technology education is the ‘gendering’ of technology. “Technology is a gendered subject, associated essentially with males. This is a major stigma for the subject” (Lewis) The traditional male domination of technology is spread evenly across all technological disciplines, from traditional areas through to the newer fields of computing. While this gender imbalance is more than likely a socio-cultural relic from the time when technology areas such as carpentry, welding, etc were seen as areas for men only, it is still one that is changing very slowly.