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What is Technology? - Coggle Diagram
What is Technology?
What I thought before
Technology = external things we rely on to be more productive
"Anything that wasn't around when you were born" (Time, 2013)
References
Agar, J. (2019). What is technology? [Review of the book Technology: Critical history of a concept, by E. Schatzberg]. Annals of Science, 77(3), 377-382.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00033790.2019.1672788
Isman, A. (2012). Technology and technique: An educational perspective. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 11(2), 207-213.
http://tojet.net/articles/v11i2/11222.pdf
Kumar, V., Kumar, U., & Persaud, A. (1999). Building technological capability through importing technology: The case of Indonesian manufacturing industry. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 24(1), 81-96.
https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007728921126
Schatzberg, E. (2006). Technik comes to America: Changing meanings of technology before 1930. Technology and Culture, 47(3), 486-512.
http://search.proquest.com.library.sheridanc.on.ca/docview/198448721?accountid=3455
Time. (2013, April 2). An interview with computing pioneer Alan Kay. Time.
https://time.com/archive/7232304/an-interview-with-computing-pioneer-alan-kay/
The example that changed my mind
A hammer - I would not have called it technology before
It is a simple tool that humans made to do a job
Kumar lists "tooling" as part of the physical component (Kumar, Kumar & Persaud, 1999)
If a hammer counts, then technology is not about how advanced something is
My definition now
Technology is anything humans make or develop to help us do better and get more productive outcomes.
It includes big advancements and ordinary tools - a hammer counts (Kumar, Kumar & Persaud, 1999)
It includes know-how and methods, not only objects (Kumar, Kumar & Persaud, 1999)
Why we need new technologies
What counts as "new" keeps moving (Time, 2013)
Drones are a current example
Carrying water to fires
Accident and ambulance response
Food and parcel delivery
Drones would have counted as technology under my old definition too - they are a big advance
To keep up as the world moves faster
Because technology creates problems that need new technology
Cars gave us travel and also pollution - electric cars solve this problem for the future
How my ideas changed
What changed my mind: the word is only about a century old, but the things are ancient (Schatzberg, 2006, p. 486)
Now: methods and know-how count as well (Isman, 2012, p. 208)
Now: I appreciate ordinary tools too that help us without us realizing their importance
Before: only big game changing technologies fascinated me
What the module challenged
It involves people, not just machines
Use of technology involves "structured relations with other humans, machines, and the environment" (Isman, 2012, p. 208)
Technology has two parts, not one
Informational: "know-how in management, marketing, production, quality control, reliability, skilled labor" (Kumar, Kumar & Persaud, 1999)
Physical: "products, tooling, equipments, blueprints, techniques, and processes" (Kumar, Kumar & Persaud, 1999)
Even experts find it hard to define
"
One of the keywords of our world, yet it is also one of the most confused" (Agar, 2019)
The word "technology" is only about 100 years old
Before 1930 people said "useful arts, manufacturing, industry, invention, applied science, and the machine" (Schatzberg, 2006, p. 486)