East Meets West: What Americans and Hong Kong People Think About Technology

Abstract

A few years ago, Rose and Dugger (2002) published the results of a public opinion poll on What Americans Think about Technology. Sponsored by the International Technology Education Association (ITEA) and conducted by the Gallup Organization, this ITEA/Gallup poll revealed many things about the public’s understanding and attitudes about technology, as well their ideas about technology in the school curriculum. Referencing the comprehensive Standards for Technological Literacy (ITEA, 2000), a project that used experts to identify the content for technology education, an objective of the ITEA/Gallup poll was to determine if the public’s perception of technology is congruent with that of the experts. Clearly, given the thoroughness and credibility of the Standards along with its expected potential to influence technology education policy, direction and, content, an examination of public opinion was seen as being vital in determining the degree to which expert rhetoric matched public reality and expectations. Similarly, Hong Kong is now going through dialogue and critical selfexamination about technology education. In a departure from practice at the time, Hong Kong’s Curriculum Development Council (2000) in their document Learning to Learn, recognized the importance of technology and specifically identified Technology Education as one of the eight necessary Key Learning Areas (KLA) for all Hong Kong students to acquire from the six primary grades through the lower three secondary grades. The CDC also applied a broad definition of technology as being “the purposeful application of knowledge, skills, and experiences in using resources to create products or systems to meet human needs.” The impact of ITEA’s work and perspective was evident in references made to it in the TEKLA Curriculum Guide (CDC, 2002) that subsequently followed. Similar to ITEA’s Standards, the Guide was developed by academics, professionals from related fields, and other experts in order to help realize the recommendations made in the Learning to Learn document. The Guide included the framework, learning objectives, assessment practices, as well as exemplars for technology education. ____________________