*Where's the proof? Why should we be using computers in our classes? 

-->There have been lots of published studies, conference presentations, and other reflections as part of the scholarship of our sub-specialty. To the extent that anything qualifies as "proof" in composition and rhetoric, I think we've fulfilled that burden. Personally, I know that using computer-based pedagogies in writing classes "works" because my students tell me they do. 

*Is the Writing Teacher a Computer Scientist? Or Vice versa? Who are we? 

-->Both. We think (I think) that the technologies of writing are synonymous with the technologies of computers and of the Internet, which means that when we teach students and colleagues about how to use computers, we are teaching them something quite significant about how to write. 

* Is there a Rhetoric of computers and writing? 

-->I certainly hope so-- I've taught classes that have focused on the rhetorical strategies online (for example, http://www.sou.edu/English/Krause/wr407) and I would argue that the rhetoric of electronic communication as seen on the Internet (what I assume is taught in courses on computers and writing) is different from any of the rhetorics of print. 

And so on. 

However, and I think I'm going over my two minutes a bit (something much easier to do in this context than in the synchronous face-to-face world!), besides trying to answer these questions, it seems worthwhile to me that we (folks heavily invested in computers and writing) try to ask these questions that I think are ultimately about identity from a different perspective. It is interesting and reflective and important to ask ourselves who "we" are and to predict where we're going. But for those of us who are one of the few (if not the only) computers and writing specialist in our specific departments, I would argue that our identities within our professional situations are being shaped by those decidedly "non-computer types" we work with and who have power over us. Let me try to rephrase the questions from the point of view of this "they" to show you what I mean: 

"Just Who Do These Computer Specialists Think They Are?" 

• Is there any proof for this? Is there any reason to believe that your students who are learning about all of this computer stuff are actually "better writers?" 
• We know we want someone who does computer things in our English department, but why do we want that? 
• Aren't these teachers spending way too much time emphasizing computer skills at the expense of writing skills? Isn't this an English department after all? 
• How could writing online be any different than writing in print? Hypertext might represent some interesting arrangements, but writing is still writing, right? 
• How could computer and writing specialists possibly think that the web pages they create count as "scholarship?" 
• Can you fix my computer?