DeVoss, Dànielle N., Heidi A. McKee, and Richard (Dickie) Selfe, eds. Technological Ecologies and Sustainability. Logan, UT: Computers and Composition Digital P/Utah State UP, 2009. Computers and Composition Digital Press. Web.
http://ccdigitalpress.org/ebooks-and-projects/tes
As the first offering for a new press, Technological Ecologies and Sustainability is well done. Of course, it doesn’t give the full vision, the imagined promise of a text that doesn’t completely see itself as text; many print conventions remain, some because it is difficult to think of a book as dimensional, at least for now. It is my hope that future offerings from Computers and Composition Digital Press will take more advantage of its pixelated (and Southerners, I mean that word in the best possible way) space. This book had far too many figures done in grayscale simply, I suspect, out of habit rather than as a rhetorical choice. Projects that are intended for this press from the start may, I think, integrate new and old media better and take full advantage of the opportunities given. At the same time, there is no reason to throw out all print conventions; readers like their comfort zone, and the strategy of enriching through new media rather than a complete transformation is a good compromise for scholarly texts that need to be text-heavy to function.
That said, this is an overflowing cornucopia of a book, one that I know I will return to again and again for my classes and for my own research. I know I will be using the Fadde and Sullivan chapter for my Reht/COmp for HS and CC Teachers course this fall and wouldn’t be surprised if I used others as well. All in all, a wonderful collection.
Lanette Cadle 