Abstract: This chapter aims to examine technology studies which are both highly visible but rarely valued in almost every national curriculum. The first section of the chapter offers case studies of the way values, culture and context are implied in all technologies, drawing on cross-cultural work with technical projects in remote Indigenous Australian communities. Informed by the case studies, the second part of the chapter develops a theoretical model for the universal elements of technology. Teaching the skill of exploiting this holistic and universal approach to understanding technology is known as technacy education. Technacy in education is proposed as a third component of basic learning, alongside literacy and numeracy.