Expanding the Content Base of Technology Education: Technology Transfer as a Topic of Study

The first automobile safety “air bag” was successfully demonstrated in 1955 by its inventor, who boasted in a news reel film that the next year’s automobiles would have the air bag as a standard equipment feature. Looking back, one must wonder why such an important safety device took nearly 40 years to become a standard feature in the automobile industry. During the same time frame, Dr. Jonas Salk discovered a cure for the dreaded polio virus. In contrast to the air bag innovation, it was only a few months before every school child in the nation began receiving a polio shot. Why did these two life saving innovations differ so radically in their rate of transfer from the developer to the user? This question addresses two interdisciplinary fields of study; (1) technology transfer and (2) diffusion of innovations (Cottrill, Rogers, & Mills, 1989). These fields provide the link between technology development and utilization, and moves the work of technology developers into the hands of end users. Without the successful movement of technology out of a development lab and into a user’s