14.6.1.5. Software Capability and Design. Opinions vary as to the significance of the software and its impact on the learning environment. For example, Eastmond contends that the "user-friendliness" and transparency of the system for enabling participants in CMC to use software features heavily impacts CMC experience and learning approaches taken with the media (Eastmond, 1992). While the first systems worked with a command-line interface, modem computer conferencing systems such as FirstClass support formatted messages, multimedia attachments to messages, and a point-and-click method of navigating from conference to conference. Educational users have developed tools for managing student assignments, taking polls of student opinion, and monitoring the level of student participation. Mason (1994), however, claims that there are greater influences in the learning environments than in the software:
Research is just beginning on the effects of these friendlier systems on the educational process. Will ease of learning and using the system lead to more active and interactive participants- While it is hard to expect anything but positive improvements, evaluators of conferencing applications have always concluded that the technology is not the problem. Social and pedagogical issues play by far the bigger part in the creation of a successful learning environment (Mason, 1994, pp. 51-52).
Ultimately, the aim of all CMC systems is that the user is most conscious of the content of the communication, not the equipment or the means of communication. In some sense, computer conferencing has a very long way to go in achieving transparency. Even with the newest software, the user still needs some awareness of telecommunications, some understanding of personal computing, and often a great deal of ingenuity with troubleshooting problems on their own equipment.