Most educational research on tablets in schools seeks to find out whether children learn more efficiently with or without such devices. This study differs from such research as it instead investigates how tablets take part in the everyday CSCL classroom? Grounded in the instrumental genesis theory, this study focuses on the multifarious relationships between teacher-tablets-learner(s) to inform the processes of tablet appropriation in the classroom. Analysis of the instrumental processes observed reveals that learners on the one hand develop usage schemes that challenge those developed by the teachers. Teachers on the other hand are forced to review their competence, rethinking power-relationships vis-à-vis learners and have to reflect/design a creative, critical and participatory pedagogical practice that is aligned with learners’ utilization schemes and the instruments they bring to our contemporary classrooms.