When university faculty and students use technology, they do so in a specific context and researchers have acknowledged that in order to understand use (or non-use) of technology in higher education they need to account for this. However, although the importance of context is not questioned, there is little consensus over which contexts are relevant and how they interact with an individual's use of technology. This article proposes an "ecological" model for the contexts that influence a university faculty member's thinking about technology and uses qualitative case study data to show the wide range of contexts that need to be included in this. It argues that a much broader range of contexts needs to be taken into account in any research that investigates faculty thinking, perceptions or decisions about using technology and that only considering some of these contexts risks misunderstanding the complex influences on faculty members' thinking about their work.