One coworker calls me “The Wizard” and it’s not because I have seen all the Harry Potter movies, read all the books and can recite all the spells by heart (none of which is true). I have the moniker because I can solve nearly any technological problem that comes my way. Software glitch: solved, video needs to be brightened: solved, CMS acting up: solved. I don’t list these to gloat, but to make a point, that the problems listed require three unique tools to solve, but all the problems can be fixed easily by one person because I focus on the technology not the tool.
It might seem like a slight difference, that between the technology and the tool, but the gulf is wide, although they are related. A tool is an implement to extend human work, almost everything we use are tools. Pens are tools, paper is a tool, cameras are tools and content management systems are tools. Technology is a tool system that becomes a social presence in society and culture, an umbrella of how we do, and how we think about doing many things.
Learning how to write, the mechanics of how to use a pen and form the letters is how to use the tool, learning literature, penmanship, style, the craft of writing those form a technology.
Moving into the realm of what most of us consider “technology,” things with buttons plugs and screens, learning the mechanics of how to post into WordPress (this blog platform) is learning the tool. Learning how content management systems work, how they install, what type of files they need and how they work extends past the initial tool phase. Even further beyond that is to understand how to manipulate the code inside a post to change a single article that is moving beyond the tool to the technology.
Going deeper into that technology is how a website works, how the web works, and the infrastructure of the Internet on which it sits.