Technology education includes a variety of courses designed to teach creative and critical thinking, modeling and prototyping skills, measurement, analytical reasoning, design, troubleshooting, teamwork skills, and problem solving abilities. Basically, technology education is the study of the tools, materials, and processes necessary to design and to problem solve.

Technology education laboratories and classrooms are active learning environments. Students engage in real-world design and problem solving activities. Students learn about the technological world while they research, design, develop, invent, innovate, experiment, troubleshoot, and solve real-world practical problems.

The ultimate goal of technology education is to produce technologically literate citizens. Citizens who can activity participate in our advance societies, and citizens who can design and problem solve to satisfy human needs and wants.


       *  Teaching students how to use computers or computer software is not technology education.
       *  Teaching students woodworking, metalworking, drafting, graphics, electronics, or CADD is not technology education.
       *  Teaching students website design, CO2 vehicle design, or bridges is not technology education.


Teaching  these topics as a vehicle  for teaching technological concepts or content is technology education. Technology educator do not just teach how to use tools, they teach how to use tools to solve problems. In a computer aided drafting class, students are not just leaning how to use the CADD software. Students are learning how to use the concepts of design to create solutions to a particular problem. No matter how many time the CADD software may change, students will still have the skills necessary to deign and solve problems.

In the past, industrial arts focused more on the final product. Now, technology education focuses more on the concepts and processes necessary to achieve the final product.

The  International Technology Education  Association states in the Standards for Technological Literacy, Content  for the study of Technology (2000), "Because technology is fluid,  teachers of technology spend less  time on  specific details and more on concepts and  principles.  The goal is  to  produce students  with a conceptual  understanding of  technology and its place  in society, who can thus grasp and evaluate new bits of technology that they may never seen before. (p. 4)

Technological tools are constantly changing. The content, concepts, and skills necessary to design and problem solve seldom change. Even with all the changes, technologically literate students are able to perform and adapt.