Technology a tool or a standard?

I have been reading many blogs and wikis over the past month and one topic of discussion that keeps recurring is the need to access technology standards. I'm all for assessment to promote the educational process of teaching and learning and if you are teaching a technology class then yes, there should be standards to assess. What I struggle with is if we are suppose to integrate the use of technology into the curriculum seamlessly as a tool then why are we assessing the use of that tool and not assessing the content made by that tool? I appreciate the fact we have tools that allow us to create such incredible content now. In my opinion, technology is a tool that allows one to build and connect to content, and content is the important result that should be measured.

I think all roads eventually lead to...If the student can connect to content (find it, decode it, evaluate it, organize it), and create from that content (add and subtract, process and synthesize, manipulate, mix and remix, and build new knowledge), communicate (express compellingly their ideas), and collaborate (test their ideas on others, and build from perspective and specialization) — and do all of that to successfully learn something new and valuable — then that’s the standard we must acknowledge, not what tool they used to get there.