In a recent article at IT World Canada, Don Sheppard made the argument that “technology is an overused word.” While the purpose of his observation seems a little muddled and he does little to illustrate this supposed overuse, he does point to some potentially interesting questions about the role of language in driving people toward online information technology training and especially certain categories within that general field.
Sheppard seems to think that the overuse of the word “technology” threatens to convince people that certain things are discrete entities which exist independent of processes and ongoing development. Indeed, everyday experience tends to bear this out. If people haven’t undergone extensive online information technology training, it is probably rather easy for them to look at “technology” independent of its component parts and how it operates, and to think of it as something that has its entire purpose and design built into it.
But this conception is awfully limiting. And once you have undergone serious online information technology training, it’s easier to grasp the practical nuances of many of the things we think of as unique “technologies.” As Sheppard points out, this term includes not only specific software or platforms, but also underlying techniques and concepts that a person might learn through Agile training, PMP training and certification, and many of the other things that make you more than just an end-user.
When you piece all of that together, you understand technology more like the way it is: an evolving set of materials, processes, applications, and circumstances. It is something that a programmer or a business systems analyst, or anyone with extensive online information technology training can engage with on a recurring basis in order to utilize and create at the same time.
Does this sound like your concept of technology, or do you think of technology strictly as a physical items and discrete pieces of software that exist independent of the user and will eventually be replaced in the same fashion? We would argue that if see every piece of “technology” in isolation it will be difficult for you to function in the IT industry.
In other words, in order to fulfill, for instance, training and development specialist roles and responsibilities, you need to see technology not just as something you use but also as something you do. After all, the technical definition of the word includes not just tools such as computers, but also knowledge of the inner workings of such things.
Obtaining that knowledge should be the driving force for your online information technology training, and this should include even IT training topics that do not immediately draw your mind to the colloquial definition of technology. By integrating things like PMP training, certified scrum master training, and business analyst certification into your online information technology training program, you move more effectively toward the end goal of not merely using technology but actually working within it, manipulating it, and transforming it.