What is Technology?

Technology is an amazing thing that appears to have no end. Technology is constantly improving, almost on a daily basis. Technology is many things. When I think about technology I think of computers, cell phones, televisions, and many of the things that we encounter in our daily lives. I also think about cochlear implants and hearing aids, which is a form of technology that a small portion of our society has experience with. I also think about sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Animoto, Twitter, etc.

All of the things I have mentioned above are various forms of technology that occur in different formats. But what is technology? Is it a computer, a software program, or some foreign object that we have no sense of? There is not an easy answer to this question as responses will vary for everyone. For an individual living in a third world country a telephone is considered the best thing ever, while to those with access to vast amounts of technology it is considered to be nothing.

I view technology as a tool for achieving something. In cochlear implants and hearing aids it is a tool to help someone hear. With computers it is a tool to help someone complete a task whether it is type a paper, or create a presentation. Software is a tool to help someone complete a specific task based upon what the software targets. For example, Animoto is software to help people create videos.

So how can we use this tool called technology? This tool can be used in many ways. It can be used as a means to an end in creating a project. It can be used as a tool to increase a child’s interest or knowledge in something. It can be used to communicate with people across the globe in a matter of seconds. It can be used to facilitate learning in a classroom.

In a sense technology is everything we use in this day and age. Almost everything we use as consumers is created through some form of technology, whether it is the machine that builds cars or the machine that sprays pesticide on vegetables. Both are created through some use of technology.

What matters is how we take this new technology that is available such as blogs, wikis, etc and teach our children to use it effectively as a means to an end depending on the final product they are trying to achieve.