computer classroom issues in english

Gail et al's book, a history of computers in composition, had this interesting tidbit which reminded me of my own recently computer classroom problems:

A further challenge for those wanting to use computers in their teaching was getting access to computers in the face of institutional cultures that saw writing as a trivial activity--relative to the number crunching and data processing. (48-49)

At the U of I, we have ATLAS who runs all the computer classrooms for Liberal Arts and Sciences. Their biggest concern in ensuring that the computers are being used in the classrooms all the time. They want number crunching. Most of their computer classrooms are a screen and huge computer system at the front of the classroom, so big you can't see a short instructor like me behind it. There are a set of computers facing the front of the room. They built a room in English that is a bit more mobile; the chairs move around, and they built a section of the room with tables that you can also move around. However, if you want to lose the computers and sit in that area, you can't see each other very well. They just didn't build enough space over there. It was more important to put the space in the computer area. Sad.

Why aren't labs designed with users in mind? Why aren't computers? These things are supposed to make our lives easier, yes? Well, sometimes they're so hard to use that they just make life far more difficult. So much of it has to do with thinking about computers as only scientific machines, not designed to aid people in their lives, but to have people figure them out and aid them. I wonder how much of it is related to this quote:

I had the opportunity as a very young person working my way through school to use IBM magnetic tape electric typewriters that were available mostly in the business world...I also used line editors on mainframes when I could get my hands on one, usually in business settings. (Burns, 53)

When I think about MAC vs PC, MACs are typically used in education, PCs in business (although this may be changing). MAC has so many innovative programs, but for PCs, you can get only the same types of programs over and over. I was looking for something like Notetaker for PC, but I couldn't find anything, at least not on a quick search. How many software companies still see writing as "number crunching" and "data processing", something to be done with concision, without much consideration of the processes of folks when they're actually writing?