The writing teacher is indispensable as a collaborator and audience, as facilitator and assignment-maker. Nor can currently available software read and respond to student writing on any satisfactory level. Writers learn best when writing is taught as a process in decentralized classrooms. In doing so, the collaborative method of instruction is most valuable as a primary mode of instruction. Computer-assisted instruction can help, but cannot take over the central roles played by writers and respondents.
Microcomputers are counter-productive when used in a theoretical vacuum.
We need to use great care when we integrate microcomputers into our classrooms. This means we avoid software which concentrates exclusively upon subskills or isolates them prematurely. We also avoid software which neglects or fragments the processes involved in writing. We reject these unsound microcomputer uses for the same reasons we reject other unsound teaching practices. They don't teach writers how to write.