ABSTRACT
Although the use of technology in the writing center might be seen as a choice to make, there is compelling evidence that it is no longer an option. Electronic communication in writing courses and in WAC programs is not a trend or alternative that will fade from the scene. As is evident in the varied uses of technology in the chapters of this book or in the case studies of educational programs and projects such as those described in Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum, a 1998 collection of essays edited by Reiss, Selfe, and Young, technology has permanently changed the environment for writing in post secondary education, both in English departments and across campus. In her forward to Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum, Selfe (1998) traced the growth and intertwining of writing in writing-across-the-curriculum programs with computers as a technology for communication, culminating in what she describes as “a series of important sea changes in computer-supported writing pedagogies” in the early 1990s (p. xii). The result, noted Selfe, was the development of a variety of writing-intensive learning environments represented in communication by e-mail, listservs, and, eventually, the Internet and the World Wide Web.
