The initial results show less of an impact on students' writing than was expected. Actual writing has not improved noticeably except for readability and surface errors. Although students are writing more, they do not write longer or more complex essays. They appear to use the efficiency of the computer to write similar quality work in less time. Their attitudes about the computers were very positive, although they see both positive and negative aspects to both writing assignments by hand and by computers.
Students do prefer using the computer in writing.
The teachers also had mixed feelings. They could see the potential for more revisions and a focus on ideas rather than mechanics. However, many technical problems prevented the consistent and reliable use of the computer in class. Teachers could not count on the computers being up, or the network being up until they actually went to the lab that day. Outdated and broken hardware also exacerbated the problems.