The ‘Obvious’ Stuff - Exploring the Mundane Realities of Students’ Digital Technology Use in School

Oct 15, 2026

This paper examines how students view digital technology in schooling as helpful and/or useful. Using survey data from 1,174 students across three Australian high schools, it identifies seventeen distinct student-reported “benefits,” spanning information seeking, writing and composition, accessing prescribed work, and organizing study tasks. Findings show technology’s importance, yet it does not substantially transform schooling; students mainly connect it to managing logistics and engaging with teacher-led, linear learning. The study argues for tempered expectations and deeper understanding of instrumental use.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

I. Introduction

Technology rhetoric and presumed qualities

Barriers and shifting conditions in the 2020s

The ‘Obvious’stuff: exploring the mundane realities of students’digital technology use in school The ‘obvious’ stuff: exploring the mundane realities of students’ digital technology use in school Neil Selwyn [neil.selwyn@monash.edu](neil.selwyn@monash.edu) Monash University, Australia Selena Nemorin [s. nemorin@ucl.ac. uk](s. nemorin@ucl.ac. uk) UCL Institute of Education, UK Scott Bulfin [Scott.Bulfin@monash.edu](Scott.Bulfin@monash.edu) Monash University, Australia Nicola F Johnson [nf.johnson@ecu.edu.au](nf.johnson@ecu.edu.au) Edith Cowen University, Australia Abstract This paper explores the ways in which students perceive digital technology as being helpful and/or useful to their schooling. Drawing upon survey data from students (n=1174) across three Australian high schools, the paper highlights seventeen distinct digital ‘benefits’ in domains such as information seeking, writing and composition, accessing prescribed work, scheduling and managing study tasks . While these data confirm the centrality of such technologies to students’ experiences of school, they also suggest that digital technology isnot substantially changing or ‘transforming’ the nature of schools and schooling per se . Instead, students were most likely to associate digital technologies with managing the logistics of individual study and engaging with school work in distinctly teacher-led linear and passive ways . As such, it is concluded that educationalists need to temper enthusiasms for what might be achieved through digital technologies, and instead develop better understandings of the realities of students’ instrumentally-driven uses of digital technology. Keywords: students, digital technology, digital education, high school N.Selwyn, S.Nemorin, S.Bufin & N.Johnson Digital Education Review-Number 37, June 2020-[http://greav.ub.edu/der/](http://greav.ub.edu/der/) 1 I. Introduction Schools are now replete with digital technologies . Students and staff bring an array of powerful laptop, tablet and smartphone devices into school. From an institutional point of view, school organization and administration is reliant on large scale‘learning management systems’ and other platforms . In short, most school processes and procedures now involve (either directly or indirectly) some form of digital technology. Amidst this growing digitization of K-12 education, the use of digital technology by students has captured the imagination of educationalists – inspiring talk of ‘technology enhanced learning’ (Fitzgerald et al. 2018, Bayne, 2015), the‘digitally enhanced classroom’ (McWilliam, 2014), the‘digitally empowered student’ (Lee, 2012), and a‘new model’ of school based around “openness to learning and masterful techno-savvy” (Whitby, 2013 : 9-11) . A number of presumed qualities of technology-based schooling recur throughout such rhetoric . Firstly, technology use is seen to support expanded and improved forms of learning, in particular‘socio-cultural’ forms of learning that are based around social interactions with others . Secondly, technology use is framed as learner-centered and learner driven – driven by personal interests and passions, and allowing flexible engagement with education that fits each individual’s needs and circumstances . Thirdly, student technology use is celebrated as supporting practices that are inherently creative, communicative and collaborative in nature – what are sometimes referred to as‘twenty-first century skills’ and ‘connected learning’ (Wortman & Ito 2019, Ito et al,. 2013) . In short, digital technologies are believed to enhance students’ educational encounters and experiences in a number of empowering ways that differ markedly from‘traditional’ or ‘industrial era’models of schooling. Of course, the promise of educational technology has long been stymied by an apparent reticence amongst schools and teachers to adopt and implement ‘new’ technologies . Throughout the 1980s, 1990s a

FAQs

What does the paper investigate about students and digital technology?

It explores how students perceive digital technology as helpful or useful to their schooling, focusing on the everyday ways students use it.

How is the evidence in the paper collected?

The study draws on survey data from 1,174 students across three Australian high schools.

What conclusion does the paper reach about digital technology’s impact on schools?

Digital technology is central to students’ experiences, but it does not substantially change or transform the nature of schools; students often use it to manage logistics and participate in teacher-led learning.

Oct 15, 2026

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