Section 3
“Sustaining Writing Centers, Research Centers, and Community Programs” is the theme of Section Three. While the previous two sections are focused around the much more specific actors and ecologies of teachers, students, administrators and classrooms, this section addresses the many ecologies that are peripheral to English departments and writing programs. James Porter addresses sustaining a digital research center by describing his experiences with WIDE. He connects making research in digital writing available to communities outside the English department to creating a sustainable environment through developing a presence both within and beyond the academic community. Jeanne Smith and Jay D. Sloan offer a discussion of technology in writing centers and the way that technology can support or suppress the community-oriented learning environment of a writing center. Palmquist et. al demonstrate the need to evaluate technological ecologies of online spaces through their work with Writing@CSU, an online space for writing assistance and writing instruction. Lisa Dush offers an alternative method of evaluating writing technologies through the application of genre theory. Using an attempt to incorporate the genre of digital storytelling into a community organization as her example, she explains why this attempt ultimately failed and how the genre inventory might have brought preferable alternatives to light. Section 4