Following the EC initiative, in 20006, the Spanish Ministry of Education when establishing the minimum curriculum standards for the compulsory education (primary and secondary) introduced the information handling and digital competence, together with other seven competences, to be implemented in a discipline-based curriculum. This competence is understood as the search, uptake, selection, recording, and processing of information using different techniques and strategies according to the sources and media used with a critical and reflexive attitude. It requires the mastering of different languages (Dd’E, 2009; 2010). This paper discusses part of the results of a RTD project: "Policy and Practice regarding ICT in Education: Implication for Educational Innovation and Improvement" (Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia. SEJ2007-67562). We discuss the implications of introducing the notion of digital competence in a discipline-based curriculum and a text-book-based teaching tradition. We approach the problem and the methodological approach of our research consisting of four ethnographic case studies in two secondary and two primary schools. We finish up by presenting and discussing the teaching and learning challenges, difficulties and opportunities schools, teachers and students meet in this new context.