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What Is the Relevance of Technology?

"Technology in the long-run is irrelevant". That's what a customer of mine told me when I made a demonstration to him about a brand new product. I was speaking about the product's features and benefits and listed"state-of-the-art technology" or something to that effect, as among them. That is when he made his statement. I realized later that he was right, at least within the context of how I used"Technology" in my demonstration. However, I began thinking about whether he could be appropriate in different contexts as well.

What is Technology?

Merriam-Webster defines it as:

1

A: the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area: engineering 2

B: a capability given by the practical application of knowledge

2

: a manner of accomplishing a task especially using technical processes, methods, or understanding

3

: the specialized aspects of a particular field of endeavor

Wikipedia defines it as:

Technology (from Greek τÎχνη, techne,"art, skill, cunning of hand"; and -λογία, -logia[1]) is the making, modification, utilization, and comprehension of machines, tools, techniques, crafts, systems, and techniques of organization, in order to resolve a problem, enhance a preexisting solution to your problem, reach a goal, manage an applied input/output terms or execute a particular function. It may also refer to the collection of these tools, such as machinery, modifications, arrangements and processes. Technologies significantly influence human and other animal species' ability to control and adapt to their natural environments. The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include construction technology, medical technology, and information technology.

Both definitions revolve around the same thing - application and usage.

Technology is an enabler

Many people mistakenly believe it is technology which drives innovation. Yet from the definitions above, that is clearly not the case. It is opportunity which defines innovation and technology which enables innovation. Think of the classic "Build a better mousetrap" example taught in most business schools. You may have the technology to build a better mousetrap, but if you have no mice or the older mousetrap works nicely, there is not any opportunity and the tech to build a better one becomes immaterial. On the other hand, if you are overrun with mice then the chance exists to innovate a product with your technology.

Another Example, one with which I am intimately familiar, are consumer electronics startup businesses. I have been correlated with both those that succeeded and those who failed. Each owned unique leading edge technology. The difference was chance. Those that failed could not locate the opportunity to come up with a purposeful innovation using their technologies. In fact to endure, these firms had to sew faithfully into something totally different and if they were lucky they could make the most of derivatives of their original technology. More often than not, the first technology wound up at the garbage heap. Tech, consequently, is the enabler whose greatest value proposition is to make improvements to our lives. So as to be applicable, it has to be utilised to make innovations that are driven by opportunity.To get more detail click Carl Kruse

Technology as a competitive edge?

Many companies list a tech as one of their competitive advantages. Is this valid? Sometimes yes, but In most cases no.

Technology develops along two avenues - an evolutionary path and a radical route.

A Revolutionary technology is one which enables new industries or enables solutions to issues that were previously not feasible. Semiconductor technology is a great example. Not only did it spawn new industries and goods, but it spawned other revolutionary technology - transistor technology, integrated circuit technology, microprocessor technology. All which provide many of the goods and services we have today. However, is semiconductor technology a competitive advantage? Looking at the number of semiconductor companies which exist today (with brand new ones forming every day), I'd say not. How about microprocessor tech? Again, no. A great deal of microprocessor companies out there. How about quad core microprocessor tech? Not as many businesses, but you've got Intel, AMD, ARM, and a host of businesses building custom quad core chips (Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm, etc). So again, not a great deal of competitive advantage. Competition from competing technologies and easy access to IP mitigates the perceived competitive advantage of any specific technology. Android vs iOS is a fantastic example of how this works. Both systems are derivatives of UNIX. Apple used their technology to introduce iOS and gained the early market edge. But, Google, using their variant of Unix (a competing technology), captured up relatively fast. The reasons for this lie not only at the underlying technology, but in how the goods made possible by those technologies have been brought to market (free vs. walled garden, etc.) as well as the differences in the strategic visions of each corporation.

Evolutionary Technology is one that incrementally builds upon the foundation technology that is revolutionary. But by it's very nature, the incremental change is easier for a competitor to match leapfrog. Take for example wireless cellphone technology. Company V introduced 4G products prior to Company A and while it may have had a short term benefit, when Company A introduced their 4G goods, the advantage because of technologies disappeared. The customer went back to picking Company A or Company V based on price, service, policy, whatever, but not predicated on technologies. Thus technology might have been relevant in the brief term, but in the long run, became immaterial.

In today's world, Technologies tend to quickly become commoditized, and in any specific technology lies the seeds of its own passing.

Technology's Relevance

This Article was written by the potential of an end client. From a developer/designer perspective things get murkier. The additional one is taken out of the technology, the less relevant it becomes. To a developer, the technology can look like a product. An enabling product, however, a product nonetheless, and consequently it's highly relevant. Bose uses a proprietary signal processing technologies to allow products that fulfill a set of market requirements and thus the technology and what it enables is pertinent to them. Their clients are more concerned with how it sounds, what is the price, what is the quality, etc., and not so much with how it's attained, thus the technologies utilized is not as applicable to them.

Recently, I was involved in a discussion on Google+ about The new Motorola X phone. A lot of the people on these posts slammed the Phone for a variety of reasons - price, locked boot loader, etc.. There were Also lots of knocks about the fact that it did not possess a quad-core Chip like the S4 or HTC One that were priced equally. What they Failed to understand is that whether the manufacturer used 1, 2, 4, or 8 Cores in the conclusion makes no difference as long as the phone can provide a Competitive (or perhaps best of course ) feature set, functionality, price, And user experience. The iPhone is one of the most Prosperous phones Ever created, and it runs on a dual-core processor. It still Provides one of the best user experiences on the market. The features That are enabled by the technology are what are related to the Customer, not the technology itself.

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If Technology Is Effective in the Classroom - Why Do Some Students Dislike It So Much?

The Efficacy of technology use in the classroom has become a contentious matter. While many teachers and pupils believe it is ideal to use technology as it enriches teaching others believe that it causes a lot of challenges and it is a waste of time. If tech is as successful in the classroom due to the fact that many teachers consider it to be; why not some students dislike it so much?

In order to Objectively respond to the query, 3 posts were analyzed. 2 from those 3 associate how the utilization of technologies in the classroom frustrates pupils while the previous one translates the notions of pupils who believe that technologies in the classroom has reacted to their requirement. Hence the matter isn't that technology isn't powerful but instead that some educators will need to be cautious about technology usage in the classroom and many others will need to get trained to be able to correctly utilize technology to educate so that pupils don't see technology as obstacle learning however as an improving tool.

After outlining the 3 posts which were Reviewed we are going to have the ability to prove there are 2 groups of pupils who claim to dislike tech from the classroom: Those that are improperly subjected to this by their own instructor and people who didn't give themselves sufficient time to familiarize themselves with this. We'll then have the ability to reach the logical conclusion which those very same students would enjoy the value of technology in the classroom when their teachers employed it correctly. Let us summarize the content that we're referring to.

The article "When good technology means bad teaching related that many students feel that teachers and professor use technology as a way to show off. Students complain of technology making their teachers"less effective than they are when they stuck into a lecture in the chalkboard" (Young) other problems related by students include teachers wasting class time to teach about a web tool or to flab with a projector or software. When teachers are unfamiliar with the technological tools, they are likely to waist more time trying to use them the technological software that is used the most according to students is PowerPoint. Students complain that teachers use it instead of their lesson plan. Many students explain that it makes understanding more difficult"I predict it PowerPoint abuse" (Young). Professors also post their PowerPoint Presentation to the school board before and after class and this encourages students to miss more classes.

Another Problem reported in the article with the use of technology in the classrooms is that many schools spend time to train their staff about how to use a particular technology but it does not train them on"approaches to utilize them nicely" (Young). The writer believed that schools should also give small monetary incentives to teachers and professors to attend workshops.

In an interview made with 13 students,"a few Gave their instructor a failing as it came to using Power Point, Course Management systems as well as other classroom technologies" (Young ) some of the complains were again about the misuse of PowerPoint's and the fact that instructors use it to recite what's on the scale. Another complaint was that teachers who are unfamiliar with technology often waste class time as they spend more time troubleshooting than teaching. The last complain mentioned is that some teachers require students to comment on online chat rooms weekly but that they do not monitor the outcome or never make reference to the discussion in class.

Similarly, the article "I'm Not a computer user" (Lohnes 2013) speaks to the fact that students expectations as far as technology is concerned is very different. In a study done with 34 undergraduate university students, they advise that technology is an integral part of a university students life because they have to do must everything online from applying for college or university, searching and registering for classes, pay tuition and that in addition to being integrated in the administration, etc. technology is also widely used to teach and is valued by higher education.

Those students, however, feel that technology poses a barrier to success as they struggle to align with the ways in which the institution values technology." A pupil clarifies that technology is utilized within her freshman year to turn in homework, participate in discussion boards and sites, exposing the professor, watching grades and to get a vast assortment of other administrative job including monitoring another school bus. This specific pupil whose name is Nichole states that she doesn't have a notebook but stocks a household computer. She's a younger brother that also uses the computer to finish his college work so that she consequently must stay up late to finish duties. She says"technology and I? We never had that connection" (Lohnes). Nichole dislikes the fact that her school requests she had more contact with technologies than she's conformable with. Nonetheless, she clarifies that as she began doing those college online missions so often she came to recognize they weren't so poor.

Among her problems though with technologies Is she had come from Puerto Rico about a year before entering college and she had to use the pc so far there. The content relates that additional college students like Nichole have confessed they are"reluctant technology users" (Lohnes) The report would like to clarify, in nature, that although many folks would anticipate that faculty students prefer tech and are familiar with this," that assumption is faulty" (Lohnes).

On the other hand, the Article"What Screenagers Say About..." High school age pupils were asked about what they thought of technologies but most voiced liking it. One of these stated about PowerPoint:"My history teacher did a good job with Power Points. He would put them online, which made for really great reviews." (Screneagers, 2011) Others voiced how tech was actually who they are and teachers must understand by way of instance that if they text in course, they aren't being rude but they have gotten accustomed to multi tasking. Another pupil invites teachers not to be frightened of technologies"Teachers shouldn't be afraid of technology. Understand that it's how we live our lives. So don't just push it out. Learn to cope with us and how we work." 

Another Student nevertheless, expressed the way she favors simpler technology which her Instructor is comfortable with instead of high tech the instructor does Not control well"The most important thing for teachers is to be comfortable with what they're using. It doesn't have to be super high tech. My math teacher used a projector, and it was one of my favorite classes. Then I would go to this other class where the teacher used Power Points and the SMART board, but I didn't get any more out of it because she wasn't comfortable with the technology" (Screenagers, 2011) Pupils talked in their admiration for virtually all Kinds of Technology employed in the classroom. Still another said"One of my teachers used Skype. That's face-to-face interaction. If I had a problem with some math problem I was working on, I could take a picture of it and put it on the Skype screen. She could see where I was making my mistake. It really helped." (Screenagers, 2011) The bottom line is the high School pupils wanted to let educators know that they actually like Technology and it is currently a fantastic portion of their everyday routine But it must be used correctly to allow them to appreciate it.

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