What Is Technology?
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thetechedvocate.org
This material is related to The Open University Computing and IT certifications.

The function and impact of technology in both our personal and working lives is ever growing. Understanding how individuals shape technology and how technology shapes people's interactions with each other and the natural world is important - not just for those who research, develop and execute new innovations, however also for all those individuals and organisations that need to use those technologies in their working and individual lives.
comptia.org
Technology is not a neutral word. Different people will give it various meaning depending upon their viewpoint and context.

Members of the Faculty of Technology are no different, however for several years we have embraced one specific definition of technology that reflects our own aims and objectives:

There are three important aspects to this meaning:

1. Technology is about taking action to meet a human requirement rather than simply comprehending the operations of the natural world, which is the goal of science. The innovation of the microscope was driven by a requirement to explore the world of the small, beyond our unaided vision. This technological option to a long standing issue has in turn allowed us to comprehend more the workings of the world which in turn has actually resulted in the development of more innovations.

2. It uses far more than scientific knowledge and includes values as much as truths, practical craft knowledge as much as theoretical knowledge. The iPod is an example of where the physics of making a small device bring a lot music is married with creative design to make an iconic should have device.

3. It includes organised methods of doing things. It covers the intended and unexpected interactions in between items (makers, devices, artifacts) and the individuals and systems who make them, use them or are impacted by them through numerous procedures. Many individuals like to consume coffee, often in a coffeehouse. That coffee may have originated from trees which have been bred particularly for increased yields that support a small farmer and his household however that needs pesticides that were established and made in another nation. The harvested coffee beans will themselves be carried worldwide, to be processed and positioned in packages which are dispersed to shops that then make the cup of coffee in a polystyrene cup that was manufactured for the function but which then needs to dealt with and so on. Every choice we make counts on, and feeds, a highly interdependent and far reaching way of life where some have much and some have little.

Technology is a hands-on, can-do profession where people have to be experienced in a lot of the following: engineering, communicating, designing, establishing, innovating, handling, production, modelling, and systems thinking. But innovation also provides us different items which can be used for excellent or ill or where the benefits are disputed and likewise the processes associated with producing and utilizing innovation suggests that we need to all take an interest in whether it supplies us and everyone else with a sustainable future.

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