Type I and Type II Technology

Type I technology seems to apply to technology that supplements ordinary skills, and has a predetermined single purpose that is built into the technology; there is a given amount of information in the technology that is merely accessed by the user. Type II technology is open-ended and while it may not have information or facts designed into it to be accessed, it allows for the user to assume an active role in the program.

Examples of Type I technology include Jump Start Typing, a typing teaching program that we used in my middle school to teach us to type on computer keyboards. Another example is Microsoft’s Encarta Encyclopedia, which came on my family’s old computer – this was just a virtual encyclopedia that was easy to search. A third example of Type I technology is The Oregon Trail, a historical computer game that has a predesigned course giving a degree of variation to the player’s decisions.

Examples of Type II technology include the TI-83 graphing calculators we used in my high school math classes. These calculators had programming capacity, and we were taught how to make basic programs. I went above and beyond and learned how to make animations and geometry programs on the calculator. Another example is the spreadsheet program Microsoft Excel, which has functions programmed into it, but virtually infinite uses for the functions. A final example of Type II technology would be something like Adobe Photoshop, which has many features, but leaves the core and bulk of the content to the user.

Type II Applications of Technology in Education: New and Better Ways of Teaching and Learning – Cleborne Maddux and D. LaMont Johnson from Educational Microcomputing: The Need for Research (1984).