This paper uses a narrative constructed from diary entries made over the course of a year teaching English as a platform for examining some of the political, economic, educational and socio-cultural contexts into which the Digital Education Revolution (DER) was launched as policy. It analyses the underlying imperatives, components and balance of the current educational reform agenda in Australia and how it might impact on English pedagogy and curriculum. In doing so it argues that the delivery of a reform program with considerable promise requires greater attention to the equilibrium of its constituent parts. Additionally it suggests that the priorities for the enacted curriculum in English classrooms are set according to the evaluation of content knowledge and more recently by the prescription of performance measurements of students' literacy and numeracy skills. Finally this paper argues that in order to support investment in the DER, the role of digital technology should be inscribed in National Curriculum documents relating to the study of English from the rationale through to assessment.