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Technology education is a field with specific content knowledge that embeds a variety of problem-solving process to create solutions to technological challenges. Using the Standards for Technological Literacy as its foundation, technology education prepares students to become technologically literate. Studies on how technologies are developed and used as problem-solving tools, allowing them to create novel solutions for any technological challenge. Although the use of computers can be an important tool in a technology education classroom, the field is not focused on the use of educational technologies. Educational technologies, generally used to enhance the student learning in the classroom, are only one aspect of a breadth of knowledge and tools used in the field of technology education. Falling under the Career and Technical Education umbrella, technology education offers courses primarily in middle and high school classrooms. The courses offered are up to each state’s education department and include a wide variety of topics from carpentry and metalworking to engineering design and robotics. Technology education teachers typically incorporate a variety of instructional methods, allowing for students to be more motivated, and providing opportunities for students to connect to prior and subsequent knowledge, engaged in higher-order thinking process, and develop problem-solving skills. One the most critical components of technology education is the integration of hands-on activities and design-based learning activities in the classroom. Teaching the standards through interactive activities allows students to be engaged with the material in an authentic manner, solidifying the meaning of the learning in a much more meaningful way. Technology education also has the potential to enhance student learning in other subject areas, particularly in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). An effective technology education program creates technologically literate students by using the nature of technology to bring other subjects together for the sake of creative and effective problem-solving. Submitted version |
