Faculty Spotlight
July - August 1999
Telling Stories Through Words and PicturesRob Heller
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Rob Heller and Erik Bledsoe may seem an unlikely pair to co-teach a course, but their blending of prose and photography created a unique and special course for their students this past spring. They met during the 1997-98 ITC-CUE Hewlett Innovative Teaching Fellowship call for proposals. Both were interested in doing something different with their courses, but neither had a partner. After meeting at an ITC sponsored interest meeting they began formulating an idea for a course, "Telling Stories Through Words and Pictures."
Through this course they wanted to "examine the history of the genre sometimes called the 'picture text' -works that utilize both prose and photographs equally to tell stories." More specifically, they wanted to:
- provide students with an historical sense of the combined use of photographs and text to tell stories;
- develop students' writing skills;
- develop students' photography skills;
- and encourage students to explore a selected segment of their world and explain their understanding of it through the combination of prose and photography.
This course became more than a blending of words and text, it was a blending of undergraduate students from different backgrounds and experiences, and a mixing of instructors with their own visions. The two instructors brought extensive background knowledge and experiences using technology in their teaching, but neither had been in a team teaching environment.
Rob was at one time a luddite, or anti-computer. His "awakening" came when he saw a demonstration of the Macintosh computer and saw how it could enhance the field of photojournalism. For him the Macintosh made "setting typeface a dream-come-true." He is also a life-long learner and saw he could effectively apply computer technology to his field. In his teaching he focuses on the application of the tool, not the mechanics.
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