Technacy

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Technacy is the ability to understand, apply and communicate creative and 'balanced' technological solutions with consideration of contextual factors. The Australian meaning of technacy is as a theoretical 'model' of technological activity.

It is that ability to show an holistic understanding of technology, and make rounded judgements for effective and usually sustainable solutions. Not to be confused with technical literacy, which tends to have a variety of meanings from being focussed on skills in using tools, often intending use of computers, the ability to know and use the technical language for a technology genre (eg Australian NSW Board of Studies definition), to a broad scientific and technological orientation of knowledge as suggested by the International Technology Education Association(ITEA)'s definition or via the Wiki entry on Technological literacy.

Technate people study the context of a technological problem in a comprehensive way before selecting the knowledge, tools and resources needed to progress a solution. This comprehensive assessment is critical to the success of the solution. Generally, being technate is demonstrating the ability to develop 'balanced' solutions based on a collection of key ideas within the context (see below for the four minimum technacy elements). Therefore, technate people successfully solve technological problems - whether in computing or product design - as they have clearly considered the purpose and context for the end use of the developed solution.

1 Technacy guidelines
- 1.1 Theorems of technacy
2 Australian origin
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Technacy guidelines

The Australian Federal Government has set a target for this capability across all K-12 and teacher education. It asserts that all technological activity always, whether it is immediately apparent or not, contains the following:

task purpose and context factors: normally difficult to control in the first instance and includes temporal (time based) and contingency factors;
agent(s) of the task: usually seen as human contribution of knowledge, technique, organisation, skill, process, values, etc. The agent is normally, but not exclusively, the human contribution (sometimes labelled 'Human Factors' or simply "People");
at least one physical or abstract 'tool' being used: either devices/instruments or 'manipulators' such as algorithms or systems;
at least one resource material or data being manipulated by the above tool: includes such things as materials drawn from the eco-environment, data, or objects shaped by the 'tools'.

However, the notion of technacy neither implies good or bad design, but rather, models the essential elements inherent in all technological activity; at any scale of complexity, or at any time historically. It therefore suggests that good or bad design can be explained through analysis of the four technacy elements and the interactions of those elements. It offers a basic framework for tasks that may include:

planning what to address in technological research,
educational experiences,
evaluating situations from a technological perspective or,
creating innovative solutions in new contexts or purposes or by way of mixing Technological Genre.

[edit] Theorems of technacy

All technological activity integrates the above four elements as a minimum system
All technologies are value laden and context dependent, and as such, technology transfer problems can occur when a solution intended for one context and purpose is not appropriate for a different context and purpose
The above four elements of technacy interact in a deliberate way
The above four elements are paradoxically both resource and contraints to the functionality of the system
The four minimum elements form the basis of Technological Genre: eg, the Genré of Textiles technology contains typical and specific tools, materials, and human factors for a purpose and context, that is different to the genre of information technology.
All events and things can be viewed from a technological perspective, by studying the four elements and their interactions, as a minimum system.
Innovations often merge different Technological Genre.
The four elements of the technacy theory form a fractal system where any one of them can be a product of another technacy system, and where the product of any technacy system can be an element of a new technacy system. This simple repeating pattern is a 'model' for explaining both the basic underlining structure of technological activity, and also its complexity and seemingly unlimited scope of manifestations.

[edit] Australian origin

Technology transfer into remote Australian, largely traditional, Indigenous communities has raised serious concerns about the way mainstream discourse perceives technologies as values neutral and not context specific. A national Indigenous Technology research agency created the concept in 1986 to help communicate the understanding that all technologies are based on a fundamental system of interdependent factors. Understanding this system, or technacy, is to know technologies wholly, and as such, offers engineers, designers and policy makers a more robust framework for transference of technologies across cultures or into other contexts.