DATTA's position on Technology EducationSetting Statement Australians face new and diverse lifestyles, environmental and economic challenges and opportunities. Full participation in our complex democracy demands knowledge and experience of both the processes and the products of technology. Increasingly citizens are asked to make judgements on matters dependent on technological knowledge and intuition such as water use, forms of power generation and energy use and carbon trading. With this comes an increasing demand to commit to an education that fosters new knowledge, capabilities and dispositions. Examples of these include responding positively to rapid change, thinking in new ways that cross traditional boundaries like culture or subject disciplines, developing critical awareness, embracing technological understanding and imagining many futures. Education that nurtures and promotes these qualities in individuals is a national priority. Those who do not gain this knowledge in school will be without power in exercising their right to vote on many issues. They will be deceived and exploited by those who misuse our democratic processes through the peddling of misinformation and fear. They will be unable to participate fully in a highly technological society. Technology Education Technology Education involves a combination of intellectual and practical activities encompassing planning, researching, developing and testing ideas in reality – that is designing and making. These activities promote higher order thinking skills, initiative, organization, confidence, team building, responsibility and adaptability. These enterprising behaviours help students cope with their future roles in a complex technological world. The skills they develop are transferable across the curriculum and beyond school into the home and industry, commerce and business, and will ultimately contribute to an ‘enterprise culture’ of innovative and globally competitive technologies. In Technology Education, students identify and research opportunities, then act on them as individuals or in groups, and so experience the complex processes of bringing an idea from conception to fruition. They learn to work with others in teams, to listen to the ideas of others and to respect and evaluate them. Technological knowledge derives from many areas of learning – science and mathematics, the arts and social studies all support advances in engineering for example. In Technology education, this knowledge is applied in new ways in areas such as transportation, communication, new energy sources and biotechnology. Without technological understanding the processes of invention and of creating new products and services in these areas are likely to be beyond the reach of many. Technology Education is about the synthesis of knowledge, ideas and skills and the development of innovative capabilities. In its focus on synthesis, design and invention, it embraces creativity across the full spectrum of a student’s learning. In a real sense this synthesis places Technology Education as a significant integrating force within schooling. It is learning through practice. It is an essential and discrete part of schooling because it is the place in the school curriculum where students get the opportunity to concentrate on developing creative and innovative ideas and then testing those ideas in a practical context. Vision Statement Technology education seeks to provide the new learning needed to engage in a rapidly changing, knowledge economy. It is education for an increasingly global and culturally diverse community where ideas, innovation and enterprise are central to the design and development of sustainable, socially responsible, preferred futures. Consistent with this vision, technology education empowers and inspires the community, Technology in the Curriculum Technology Education is not cross-curricular in the sense that ICT is cross-curricular. ICT can be used as a learning tool in all learning contexts, Technology Education relates to a range of learning areas, but when integrated as described above, it is much greater than the sum of its parts. A cross curricular approach would not enable Technology Education to provide deep, focussed and coherent learning experiences for students resulting in an enabling level of technological literacy. In Technology Education, knowledge is a resource to be used, a means to an end. Knowledge is possessed not only in propositional form, but it becomes active and integrated into the imagining, decision-making, modelling, evaluating and other processes which constitute technological activity. Developing knowledge and skills to operate effectively and creatively in the made world both distinguishes Technology Education from other subjects and justifies its unique place in the curriculum. It is more important now than it ever has been to have technology education as a core component of the school curriculum. Not only is society generally continuing to be increasingly technological, but the effects of ill-considered technological decisions are compounded by a precarious relationship with a fragile environment. This is occurring in a global economic context in which innovation and creativity are paramount to a sustained standard of living. As literacy and numeracy are recognized as fundamentals of all educational systems, technacy is the new fundamental that students need in the 21st Century. Technacy is the literacy of technology, and encompasses the creativity students develop through design, and the understanding of technology that they need in order to make informed decisions and wise judgements. It is imperative that this study be engaged in by all students, and consequently be a part of the core curriculum as a learning area. October, 2008 |
