Understanding students' perceptions, aptitudes, and interest in using technology, and in developing technological solutions to problems, is important for effectively incorporating it into course pedagogy. This paper presents an effort to understand student technological self-conception, especially regarding the use-of-technology versus the development-of-technology self-perception schema. Concern exists that because students are so comfortable with using technology, they are being lulled into a false sense of security and may be at risk of being replaced by it if they lack the ability to be creators of technological processes and tools themselves. We seek to broaden student conception of themselves to consider becoming creators, thereby beginning the journey towards becoming citizen developers. A survey designed with consideration of the Theory of Planned Behavior is used to understand student predisposition and self-conception pertaining to technology use versus development. Inspiration is also drawn from design thinking, an approach that promotes innovative development as a means of combining technology with the human element to create viable, effective solutions. The intended outcome of the overall project is to initiate the creation of citizen developers, within existing curriculum and course requirements we are bound to honor, thereby serving as a bridge towards a more holistic design thinking in students, sparking a creative process of solution and problem-solving generation and development. This first stage of the research project is focused on developing an understanding of student technology comprehension and their prior experience in not just utilizing technology but also in leveraging it to develop solutions to meaningful problems.