Faculty Spotlight
July - August 1999: Rob Heller and Erik Bledsoe
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Practice and Analysis
His second technological inspiration was the World Wide Web. The collaborative nature of this environment led to several projects that were both national and international in scope. Rob was part of the first Virtual Viscom meeting using CU-SeeMe, Web-based chat rooms, and telnet for email in 1995. He coordinated an inter-institutional photo critique course with a colleague. Students from two universities participated in an hour-long CU-SeeMe session where they viewed photos and then discussed them online. Rob's students received international recognition when their "Eyes on LaFollette" project was cross published in a Slovenian newspaper. The project is Web-based and printed each year in a local LaFollette newspaper.
Erik's "technology roots" came from the computer science field, where he began his undergraduate studies before being "seduced away" by literature. He brought his technology interests with him and began publishing course pages on the Web in the fall of 1997. He attended ITC's basic HTML series and taught himself the rest. Erik is "very conscious to try and use the technology to improve the class for the students and not simply to boost [his] ego by saying that I have a class Web page."
One of the ways in which Erik uses the Web to enhance student learning and foster active learning is by designing assignments that force them to use primary materials that are not available in the UTK Library. One of his favorite sites is the online collection of the Library of Congress. He found that online discussion forums allowed students to express themselves in ways they may not do in class. Erik's students often voiced opinions or shared personal experiences online that they felt uncomfortable discussing in class. These experiences took Erik's students beyond the classroom walls and into an environment where they felt more at ease discussing sensitive or intimidating subject matter. Erik's current energies are focused on "creating original Web delivered multimedia content" to enhance his students' reading experiences.
Erik and Rob share the belief that there is more to their courses than putting a syllabus online because "if that is all we are doing with the WWW then we aren't really improving the students' learning experience."
It seemed as if all the ingredients for a successful course were in place and that with all this experience and technical savvy delivery of it would be a breeze. Not so, when asked what the hardest part of developing and teaching this course was, both men singled out the team teaching. At first glance one would think that team teaching would split the work in half and make the course less time consuming, but what they learned was just the opposite. Intensive advanced planning was required to ensure that they shared a common vision for a particular class or at least agree to disagree and present two perspectives.
Team teaching means involving the other person before making a decision at the last minute or changing the direction or pace of a course. At times there was less focus on integrating the technology because what was happening in the face-to-face classroom was more important.
Final Thoughts
Regardless of all the planning, compromising, and "extra" work involved, both men are interested in teaching this course again, if there was a way to support it through the University system. This course offered intellectual challenges to the students and the instructors. Not only did Rob and Erik witness an elevation in the levels of discussion their undergraduate students were engaging in, but their students were exposed to interesting ideas and gained a heightened awareness of words and pictures. The hands-on experiences led to a better understanding of the work they would be doing in the future and an appreciation for those they may be collaborating with in the workplace.<-- 2 of 2