Mark, I think you're right about the misuse of the term learning. Before the first dot com bubble, online learning was more about learning, or at least training & education. Then vendors saw how much money they could make, especially on software that was priced on a per license model. Then the marketing pros got hold of learning and turned it into a commodity. This was followed by the bean counters who talked about cost per hour of instructional development. What the heck is an hour of web-based instruction, anyway?

Both Stolovitch's & M-W's definitions of technology work well for me. I think that everyone in the learning professions has to have some understanding of the effects and uses of various technologies, because we are all immersed in our technologies.

1. Learning is not a commodity, it is an innate natural ability.
2. Technologies cannot be treated as separate from pedagogy/androgogy, because they are part of our environment. We have to understand them.