
Keywords
Categories
Quick Links
Technology & Innovation
The Black Education Free Encyclopaedia

Technology is the pragmatic technical resources used by humans. Innovation is a human-centred perspective for change. Organisations are always looking for ways to integrate technology to automate tasks, secure data, reduce human error and gain competitive edge. In this digital age at every corner of an organisation there is usually some form of technological activity occurring. Sometimes technology innovations are not always welcomed by everyone and so some may not consider it as innovative at all. This is where an idiosyncrasy exists between innovation and technology.
Author/s: The Black Education Editorial Team
This page requires content from various sources. If you are interested in providing content for this page please submit your request here.
Affiliate Links
This page contains reader supported affiliate links where we may receive an affiliate commission should readers purchase these products or services. This keeps our website free and pays for our expenses.
Jurisdiction
Both the content provider and us have a legal responsibility for all content to adhere to applicable laws in the United Kingdom governing jurisdiction or any other applicable laws or jurisdictions. It is important for users to exercise caution when posting content in light of this responsibility for your protection and ours.
Legal Standing
The content we host is for informational purposes only. It does not provide any expert advice for any particular matter such as medical, legal or financial; for such matters the help of a licensed or qualified professional should be sought.
For the protection of users and us, content that may result in criminal or civil liability under any applicable laws in the United Kingdom or other jurisdictions should be avoided for contribution. Black Education CIC does not offer any legal protection, indemnification or immunity for content contributors or other user.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is an offence and a form of fraud. If any of our content is used in a commercial manner or used without credits for any other purpose, the appropriate legal action will be sought to the full extent of the law. Contributors also have a legal obligation to ensure content produced is that of their own work and provide the appropriate credit when including or making reference to third party content.
Licensing, Copyright and Content Re-use
Freedoms are given to reuse the information and content on our platforms for educational purposes only and not for commercial use. It is important for users to acknowledge and respect any present copyrights or trademarks when applicable. Any re-use of information should be referenced and credits given. All content providers and users are expected to agree to the free use of information on this basis and to which any content provider holds the copyright, agree to further license its use under: Creative Commons Attribution- ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (“CC BY-SA”), and GNU Free Documentation License (“GFDL”) (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts). Re-users may comply with either license.
Content, Contributors and Users
Our platform content is collaboratively edited by our content providers and our editors. We do not endorse or represent any opinions expressed in any of the content. Our editor’s role is merely to ensure that information is formatted appropriately and moderated accordingly for credibility and fairness. Our community of users provide content and this is how the much of information we host is produced. It is users that help us to fulfil our mission. Essentially, it is the community that preserves our platform. Everyone is welcome to join as a contributor or user but the policies listed here need to be followed. By continuing the use of this site you are agreeing to these terms.
Read more on our terms of use.
1. What Is Innovation?
Innovation is a human-centred perspective for change. It is when a person seeks to challenge the status quo, diverging from the common perspective. Tunnel vision is a typical trait often found within teams. Innovators aspire to incite experiments within teams. Leading psychologists have found that people tend to demonstrate resistance to change and prefer to continue to do things the ‘normal way’. Innovation works to break the tunnel vision of the ‘normal way’ and find new ways of doing things whether pragmatic or logical. Sometimes innovation is merely sparked by curiosity, with innovators curious to see if there can be another way regardless of need or requirement. By testing and tweaking innovators fulfil their creativity and curiosity to see whether something else works. Innovation does not necessarily require technological advancement, it can involve simply changing the order of things using existing technology and resources.
2. The Relevance of Technology Innovation
Technology is moving at a fast pace. We live in an era where things are becoming more automated and autonomous. Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Robotics, Data Visualisation and Quantum Computing are becoming more and more in demand by governments and organisations around the globe. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now dominating our everyday lives.
In the USA 97% and in the UK 92% of people owned a smartphone in 2021. In contrast to the stationary less mobile internet in the early 2000s, because of technology innovation, people can connect to the world digitally using their revolutionary gadgets. Since smartphones are like mini computers with built-in operating systems, they are able to collect and store large amounts of data and function as a computer would for the purposes of accessing the internet for web browsing, banking, email, document management, online shopping etc. Smartphones also have smart cameras that can capture location information, they have antennas to listen to the radio, they have calendars to manage diaries and so many other digital functions that continue to be enhanced and expanded on a daily basis.
It has been reporting that there is a smartphone dependency, particularly with the younger adults with a heavy reliance on smartphones as a primary means for online access. Some reports have also suggested that smartphones can become addictive or the applications downloaded (apps) such as social media apps, games, email etc. This has created a controversial opinion of smartphones and their general use.
3. Trends And Research Areas
Artificial Intelligence (AI) – This is a huge area within technology and it requires its own article for better insight. However, the basis for AI is so technology gathers enough information (data) to help humans make more informed decisions. AI has its own set of controversies which include lack of fairness and bias. Like human decision making that can often be flawed, artificial intelligence is riddled with programmed bias.
Business– Innovation in work trends since the Covid-19 pandemic, technology has become the save and grace for remote working, online shopping, completing everyday tasks like opening a new bank account. Technology has allowed for the atomisation within almost every industry.
Currency– technology has allowed for new digital currencies to emerge. Digital currency systems such as a cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum, are only available in digital or electronic form. They are known as digital money, electronic currency or cybercash. They do not have a physical equivalent and are totally dependent on technology to make virtual transactions.
Education– from the application process to college, online exams and testing, online courses, webinars and online teaching. Education like business accelerated quickly to becoming more technology dependent and technological focused.
Gaming and Entertainment – both the gaming and entertainment industry have been revolutionised in recent years. With online gaming becoming one of the most lucrative multi-billion-dollar industries connecting gamers worldwide. Entertainment has transitioned from going to the movie to theatre to actually streaming movies online.
Healthcare– this includes innovation within medicine, trialling new drugs and biotechnology. Technology innovation plays a very important role in new hospital machinery and life-saving equipment.
Renewable Energy– Innovation in renewable energy experiments with new approaches to support energy transition away from fossil fuels and mined gases.
4. Controversies And Challenges In Technology
While innovation in technology is important to having a better planet, innovation in policy, regulation, market design, business models, finance and infrastructure are also essential.
5. Further Reading
- https://www.england.nhs.uk/aac/what-we-do/what-innovations-do-we-support/
- https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/artificial-intelligence/tackling-bias-in-artificial-intelligence-and-in-humans
- https://medium.com/innovation-machine/2018-innovation-trends-and-opportunities-8a5d642fd661
6. References
- https://www.irena.org/innovation
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/271851/smartphone-owners-in-the-united-kingdom-uk-by-age/
- https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/
- https://medium.com/innovation-machine/2018-innovation-trends-and-opportunities-8a5d642fd661
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/digital-currency.asp
This page requires content from various sources. If you are interested in providing content for this page please submit your request here.
This page was last updated on 28, January, 2022
Staying Connected

Photo Credits: August De Richelieu
Key Areas For Innovation
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Business
- Currency
- Education
- Gaming and Entertainment
- Healthcare
- Renewable Energy
- Robotics