ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the experiences of the students in the Game 2 Engage project at Sheffield College. It examines how the introduction of a new technology, in this case iPads, affected literacy practices and, more to the point, facilitated or frustrated the process of reading or writing for these students. The chapter also considers how social relationships and the emotions that define and regulate such relationships interact with and mediate the uses of digital media. The chapter discusses how social support can play a crucial role in whether technologies of literacy ultimately result in enhancing or obstructing a perception of agency. The Game 2 Engage project offers an interesting example of the effects of digital media on literacy practices and perceptions of agency because all of these complex interactions—of materials and institutions, of emotions and social roles—were at work and visible at different points in the process, sometimes within the same day.
