Escape Velocity: Implications of Students’ Use of Information and Communications Technologies

Students tend to adopt a range of information and communications technologies more readily than teachers, and to use them in different ways. This phenomenon contributes to the emergence of differential cultural and generational changes. The dynamic information and communication environments which students immerse themselves in are formative of a technologically mediated self in which interaction with technological form rather than content becomes primary. Differential immersion in digital environments contributes to the emergence of subcultures which reduces understanding in school contexts. In this article, we draw on a recent major study of teachers and students in Australia involving access and use of information and communications technologies, and explore the implications of differential access and use of technologies to understandings of schooling.