By Hipolito Navarrete, Managing Editor/Publisher
Technology; the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry. Machinery and equipment developed from the application of scientific knowledge. The branch of knowledge dealing with engineering, the branch of science and technology concerned with the design, building, and use of engines, machines, and structures, or applied sciences, a discipline of science that applies existing scientific knowledge to develop more practical applications, like technology or inventions.
It seems the word itself, technology, is an enigmatic word that evokes a futurist vision full of flying cars and steel floating buildings that are wired together through some type of unseen devise and energy. Humans seems to be secondary to the term, may be that is the problem, we have no idea how to explain to our youth what technology means, only a certain group of insiders seem to understand how technology can be used to create new paths for humanity from places like Space X, who most civilians have no clue exist or are excluded from as a matter of business.
So technology has become one of the tallest walls to climb for any one who no longer has the time to dream because they now just have to survive. Coding sounds like a path to technical opportunities, if you have the time, the equipment or the parents who can and will help foster the opportunity.
As our new brave world and some of its most sophisticated innovators have become more global and egalitarian in their perspective, they are making an effort to bring all of us, or those in their minds eye to the world they are already moving forward from.
What does access looks like? It is not just someone making the opportunity available for those that have the tools, the time or the background to have the experience be useful and positive for them. There are movements to help youth of color and women to be part of the internet billions that have been bestowed on folks that had been a part of the internet, invented in the 1960’s, and still the start is rocky because many do not have the tools or the guidance at home to continue the work that must be done to reap the opportunities that can be accessed through the new 21st Century skills.
The trap of technology comes under the guise of those skills leading to high paying jobs, Data Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure Engineer, Big Data Developer, Software Engineer, however, unless these skills are enhanced with the knowledge of entrepreneurial opportunities and the network of financial assets, they will still be someone’s worker.
Packaging the technical skills with entrepreneurship development skills and financial networks, needs to be the focus of education pathways.
