This type of interaction is much different than one finds in a CAI drill and practice or tutorial environment. Sometimes I do most of the work in the interactions, such as when I am authoring using a word processor or a Web authoring system. Other times the software carries much of the burden, such as when my word processor is checking my spelling and grammar. As I work to solve problems and accomplish tasks, I learn a great deal. The combination of my mind and the computer system provides me with information to be learned and feedback during the learning process.
Computers can be a valuable component of a situated learning environment.
At one time in my life, I spent a lot of time doing and teaching computer programming. In the early years, the nature of my interaction with the computer was limited by the slow turnaround of using punched cards on a batch processing computer. Then timeshared computing was developed, and this greatly improved the interaction. Microcomputers have further improved the human-machine interaction in computer program. Computer programming is now an example of highly interactive computing.