NON-COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL MARKETS

Educational leadership has many needs such as campus safety, construction, cost cutting, image building, and education. Such needs constitute market opportunities for inventors, producers, and distributors of technology. However, foreign innovations may not reach U.S. markets for years, because suppliers do not want to deal with multinational marketing problems. Also, suppliers may prefer to focus on high volume business-to-business markets rather than diversify into educational markets. As a r esult, ed ucational le adership that s eeks out tech nology op portunities can gain competitive advantages in cost cutting image building, revenue generation, and other performance areas. This article identifies and describes several types of non-computer technologies that can benefit education leadership. It provides useful examples of market applications and advantages of each type. The technologies include: thermosyphoning, photovoltaics, phase-change materials, ergonomics, air knives, polymer resins, fullerens, ambient pollution controls, and several others. The technologies offer many opportunities to educational leaders for cost reducti on, revenue generation, favorable publicity, and student education.