This study investigates how students perceive and use collaborative technologies while also examining the meanings students assign to both collaboration and technology. A qualitative inductive analysis of students' assignments in a professional communication course demonstrates that students use technology to collaborate for its Accessibility, A/synchronicity, and Collaborativity. Students perceive and use technology within a functional literacy framework wherein technologies are tools providing pragmatic means to complete a shared-document assignment. These results are important for integrating collaborative assignments and collaborative technologies to promote social learning within the classroom.