There is no doubt that we live in quickly globalizing and modernizing world. Due to that, new advanced technologies have taken control over almost every sphere of our life. And yet, not everyone nowadays knows how to handle a new gadget or deal with smart machines. In order to help them, the programs of technology education are getting implemented into schools and universities, so people can keep up with our quickly changing world.
Difference between “technology education” and “education technology”
People should not be confused when they first see definitions of “technology education” and “education technology” though they sound quite similar, they are very different. Technology education is a general study of using a great variety of technologies in order to change the way we perceive the world, while education technology focuses on the intervention of modern innovations in the learning process. In other words, the first definition concerns a global understanding of modern technologies and the second one is directed at improving and modernizing life in schools and universities.
The history of technology education
The first signs of technology education have appeared with the rushing progress of the Industrial Revolution. In the 19th century, new manufacturing processes began and forever changed the world. Different machines started to appear in every sphere of life and manual production was displaced by machinery. Of course, the revolution was a collapse for thousands of people who were unemployed and a minimal income to live. But as time passed, the world began to adapt to a new era and the first signs of technology education started appeared. People were forced to learn how to cope with new technologies and in 1904 the program of Industrial Arts began in the United States. In other countries, it originated from similar disciplines, such as craft or vocational education. It included the study of manufacturing different things of various objects, such as metal, iron, wood etc. Further on it developed into technology education in 1980 at the more advanced level and it is still developing.
What does technology education do?
Technology education is linked to global knowledge and understanding of how modern technology can help us to push the progress of our everyday life towards a better future. There exist two main levels of technology education in schools. First one is concerned with teaching students how to work cooperatively in groups and how to find different creative ways of solving various problems. The basics of technological education are presented and shown to future experts in order to help them deal with difficulties effectively and do not waste any resources and time. The second level of technology education is connected with the training of senior students of various skills that will come in handy in the future, on their work or when they will be getting their secondary education and an extra diploma. At this level, technological education is an idea of critical thinking and the usage of different technologies and machines in different spheres of our life, to take it to the next level and bring a huge amount of benefits from the workflow.
Why technology education is relevant?
Basically, technology education develops in various fields of study, from kindergarten to universities. It is made so because people, who were born in the early twenties, are considered to be Generation Z, who is also called “Homelanders”. They are new “digital” people, who have never lived before the era of technologies and their lifestyles are completely different from all the previous generations. Generation Z is expected to:
- Bring new ways of living in our world;
- Modernize the entire education system;
- Put forward new ideas and hypotheses that will improve the world;
- Be frugal and economical, as people will not waste time and money because of new technologies.
Generation Z paves the way for the innovative ways of living, some of which have already become commonplace for some people. For example, people do not have to go somewhere to study, instead, they can simply sign up for online courses or have personal lessons with a tutor on Skype. In other words, people and their lifestyles change depending on each other and this connection must be maintained.
How can it help students?
Technology education helps people to dig deeper into the global understanding of our world. New modern technologies maintain a rapid tempo of life and changing it for the better. Technology education brings new experiments to the life of children, helps them to find out what they are good and bad at. For example, one of the most vivid examples of how technology education helped the educational system to go beyond the standard frames of studying is a “Flipped Classroom” method. The main concept of this is to completely reverse the basic norms of education:
- Students do not do homework at home, instead, they do it on the lessons with their mentor;
- At home students are engaged in different projects and research activities;
- Many tasks are done with the help of online-based educational platforms;
- Technologies play a huge role in education, as they are used to demonstrate some materials or to search for some relevant information;
- Students collaborate together instead of doing their tasks separately.
In this example, we can see how technological education turns education standards upside down and brings new ideas to the new modernizing world.
Another example is to write different academic papers and courseworks. In the early days it was a very time-consuming process and quite often the information, on which the whole work was based, was not updated and relevant to its day, so the paper was useless. In our days of modernized technological world writing academic papers is no longer a problem, especially if you feel that you need urgent help, so you can use online source Pro-Papers, where qualified people will offer you quick and effective help in writing any kind of work.
Negative aspects of technological education
Some people fear that technologies may not only help us develop at a different level but also bring a danger to the world. In some cases, students may have no other option but to adjust to the majority of others opinion, even if they are not quite good with technology and do not want to apply them in their everyday life and future work. Technological education may also be taught improperly and students will just waste their time doing something they completely do not understand, as some people are naturally better with technologies and others are not. But the main idea of technology education to help them overcome their fears and adapt to our world.
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