Concerns are frequently raised about undergraduates being so immersed in web-based technologies in their broader lives that they have difficulties engaging in more conventional study practices, such as academic reading and writing essays. The research reported on here examines this issue through a literacies lens. The project findings illustrate the complex interrelationship between literacies and technologies with the potential to disrupt conventional academic literacy practices. However, they also offer strong evidence for students' ongoing reliance on the authority of the institution when it comes to accessing and utilising web-based resources for their assignments. The authors suggest that, in order to understand the changes that are taking place for learners in today's higher education, more attention needs to be paid to textual practice around learning and less to the technologies and their applications. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)