Many people assume that when we speak of technology we are referring to calculators and computers. Yet the concept of technology should include non-electronic media and tools as well. Technology refers to all the tools that human beings use to search for meaning, to resolve problems, to communicate their findings, and to measure and to explain phenomena around them. Technology therefore includes all the tools we use to search, sort, create and report information in our own unique socio-cultural context. From an ethnomathematical perspective, instructional technologies should be used to assist teachers and students alike to convey knowledge, to develop and respect the many unique ways of quantifying, comparing, classifying, measuring and explaining day to day phenomena.
Technology therefore includes the many diverse tools that human beings use to solve problems.
Much of the discussion related to technology mostly refers to electronic forms - calculators and computers. People use different methods, algorithms, and different ways of thinking and seeing the world to solve problems. Students must learn this, and be able to appreciate the diversity of thought that is part and parcel of the uniqueness of all human beings. Take for example the ancient Anazasi people of the American Southwest. It is as if they lived inside the calculator.