Technology is a broad concept that encompasses all aspects of the tools that empower human beings to interact with the environment. It can be used as a tool for transforming natural resources into usable products and services, as well as to enable the acquisition of new skills that enhance existing ones.

When applied to educational settings, the pedagogical use of technology can offer students endless opportunities to engage with their imaginations, thereby providing a strong foundation for learning and problem-solving. When aligned with a teacher’s pedagogy, educational technology has the potential to help students create social, cultural, economic and community impact.

It is important to understand that technological development does not occur in a linear fashion; it is often a process of incremental improvement that requires repeated trials and errors. This is the same dynamic that drives the evolution of natural species; each step in the evolutionary path helps to further refine the underlying ideas and better test them against reality. It is also the reason why apparently promising early technologies frequently stall out midway through their development, a phenomenon known as the ‘death valley’.

A common definition of technology is the conversion of natural materials into material tools. These tools are then utilized by humans to achieve a desired outcome, for example the discovery of fire allowed food to be cooked and the invention of the wheel allowed easier travel through the environment. In addition, it has been used for military purposes including weapons of increasing destructive power.