This paper demonstrates the need for taking a design perspective on teaching and learning in the study of the uptake and use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education. It argues for the identification and scrutiny of designs for teaching and learning at the institutional level to overcome the contradictions that often arise in the implementation of ICT. The design approach is dialectic in nature and aligned to the perspective of technical rationality proposed by Herbert A. Simon and the design process as reflection-in-action proposed by Donald A. Schön. Two empirical case studies illustrate how design is conceived and changed by teachers using technologies in institutional practices of teaching and learning.