ABSTRACT
In this chapter we turn our attention to the ways in which the digital materialises in educational environments by providing a short history of computers and digital devices in the school context. This history is characterised as a series of technology-led initiatives, laden with assumptions about the educational value of the technological things themselves as tools or vehicles for learning. We develop an alternative sociomaterial perspective, which we propose generates critical purchase on what happens as technology enters educational settings, but which also, as we explore through the course of this book, provides a more responsive and open-ended way of thinking about the possibilities associated with digital literacy practices in classrooms. We develop a number of ideas which we suggest are key to interrogating the ways in which digital technologies are interfacing with literacy in classrooms and elsewhere.
