Reflective research ideas and teaching practices of Su Ballard and Caroline McCaw, two senior lecturers in Art and Design at Otago Polytechnic are investigated in this paper. The research project began in 2007 as a series of conversations about the teaching of digital media theory to art and design students. Both lecturers are traditional researchers as well as artists and makers, and teach within degree and postgraduate environments where research, theory and practice are integrated. In an environment where most research is focused on abstract analysis or a process driven approach this project uses an emergent pedagogical methodology which focuses on the generation of, and participation in, what Matthew Fuller terms "media ecologies", where theory works as part of a living system, interfacing with the system in ways that are not abstract. 'Theory' in this sense, is used to encompass a variety of models of thinking that are used to reflect and interpret practice. Theory becomes understood both as the model of the context and the context itself, in an environment which is rapidly changing and one in which we interface with digital media in highly located ways. Positioning theoretical ideas as well as our experience as makers within an ecological relationship to classroom practices, allows meaning to be brought to theory and thoughtfulness to practice. The first part of the paper outlines and positions definitions of theory, media and ecologies. The second part of the paper uses examples from classroom learning experiences, including interactive design and electronic arts, to clarify how a notion of embedded ecology might be practiced. (* This paper is co-authored by Dr. Su Ballard (Head of Electronic Arts, School of Art, Otago Polytechnic)