Education + Technology + Innovation = Learning?

Close your eyes, and think of the word “technology.” What thoughts and images come to mind? Your smart phone? Computers? Hardware or digital things, or information in bits and bytes floating around in the “cloud” above your head? Now, pause to pay attention to the feelings that you associate with “technology”? Do you feel comfortable, or sense stirrings of concern? Is there eagerness, or do you have a sense that things could very easily be out of control?

Technology is the use and knowledge of tools, techniques, systems, or methods in order to solve a problem or serve some purpose. What we view as new technology evolves and advances persistently. A technological innovation— stone tools—is said to be a driver behind early human migration (Jacobs et al., 2008). Agriculture and pottery were innovative “technologies” to our Neolithic ancestors (Cole, 1970), as was the light bulb to Edison and his contemporaries (Hargadon & Douglas, 2001). Technology arose through our need to solve problems, whatever problems we as individuals or as societies were faced with at any given time. We learned to use materials from the environment (e.g., tools), or our own ingenuity (e.g., processes), to create new things and solve our problems. Across every endeavor known to mankind, we continue to advance knowledge and technology with each new discovery made or problem solved (Douglas, 2012). Innovative technology is rarely the result of a “eureka moment,” but of much more. Due to human endeavor, the march of innovation and new technology continues through time.