Abstract: A resilient industrial ‘grammar of schooling’ is challenged by technological disruption. On a backdrop of commodification and globalization this thrust is marked by the rapid uptake of multi-touch access devices within wireless client-server architectures. Based on two sets of empirical data this paper abductively suggests that we may think of this in terms of the increased importance of (i) intellectual commonplaces, (ii) attention streams and (iii) body languages. In this paradigm the educational institution should be careful not to become a pure operator of extrinsic certification.