Circa 1984 early practitioners in the composition field imagined a potential blossoming of early efforts in computers and writing that subsequent developments in the field have lost sight of. The expense of developing personal programs, the emergence of word processing software that incorporated many of the mechanical aspects of spelling and style checking, and the shift to classroom-based techniques all restricted the scope of these visions by the late 1980s. Composition scholars and teachers turned their attention to the "tools" already available, usually developed for non-instructional communication or business applications, as adaptable for writers in academic contexts. And these tools have settled comfortably onto the tool belts teachers and writers bring to writing assignments. Even the most forward-looking technologies now used in writing instruction have largely replicated or improved upon models based on print texts and traditional classroom instruction about how to write those texts. Rather than reconceptualizing the textbook, writing educators have built bigger, better, and more accessible textbooks. But these constraints can be broken in thinking about how people learn non-school subjects. This paper describes two alternative models of instruction, one based on guided practice or apprenticeship, and one based on cultural context or acculturation. The paper then discusses building a learning environment from the theoretical models. (NKA)