This is my personal page. It's where I share a little about my work, family, and hobbies. I talk about my vision elsewhere, so here I'll talk more about the day-to-day stuff that makes up my life.

I'll start with work and family.

Work and Family

I grew up in New Jersey - not far from New York City and the ocean. I miss both. I now live with my wonderful wife and daughter in Fort Worth, Texas. We moved out here a long time ago to attend Southwestern Seminary, where I now work as the Academic Systems Manager. My wife Fran works at the seminary, also - that's her in the picture during a recent trip to Korea.

I'm the Blackboard Administrator at my institution. I administrate the learning system software, write manuals and produce tutorials, and develop model courses for various innovative programs.

I'm a Blackboard Certified Trainer and enjoy giving presentations on various aspects of online learning. I've presented at BbWorld and at our annual Texas users group conference.

A Little History: Blackboard at Southwestern

Southwestern Seminary
Since 1910, men and women have traveled from around the world to apply to one of Southwestern's many programs. Southwestern has five schools in Fort Worth and one in Houston. It has eight extension centers in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas - and a ninth in Bonn, Germany. Southwestern is a fully accredited institution that offers undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees. To learn more about Southwestern, visit the school's web site.

Blackboard at Southwestern
We purchased Blackboard Basic in 2001. Before that, we had experimented with a conferencing application called WebBoard. Because WebBoard’s environment offered a limited set of tools (discussion boards and chat areas), we decided to expand to a full learning management system. Blackboard was chosen as the system that would best fit Southwestern’s needs.

From 2002 through 2005, Blackboard was offered (1) to instructors teaching Internet courses and (2) per request to instructors who wished to supplement in-classroom instruction.

The large jump in the number of courses from 2005 to 2006 (see the graph below) reflects two large-scale changes:

1. An upgrade from Blackboard Academic Suite Basic to Blackboard Academic Suite Enterprise and...
2. The simultaneous rollout of Blackboard across the institution.

From this point on, professors were required to use Blackboard – even if only in a limited capacity.

NOTE: The number of courses in the graph equals the number of courses built in Blackboard per any given year. In a few cases, actual courses possessed multiple components, which were created in Blackboard as separate “courses.” As a result, the numbers reflect a close approximation of the number of courses actually offered.

The small percentage of Internet courses reflects Southwestern's goal to provide primarily face-to-face education opportunities for students preparing for ministry.

Some Avocations
I enjoy reading, walking, old films, the Tuesday NY Times Science section, travel, art, collecting books by favorite authors (and reading them when I have the time), and raising Shetland Sheepdogs. We have two Sheepdogs - Chance and Toffie - who continually do their best to keep our attentions focused on them. Chance is pictured here enjoying something very rare in Texas - snow.

A Few Favorites
Here are some (abbreviated) lists of favorite things. My wife and I tend to be eclectics in our tastes. Notice, for example, that Frank Sinatra resides comfortably next to the St. Louis Jesuits in the music category.

Music
Frank Sinatra, St. Louis Jesuits, David Wilcox

TV Shows
My Mother the Car (just kidding! - I actually don't watch a lot of TV)

Movies
Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, So Ends Our Night, I Know Where I'm Going, Brief Encounter, Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, The Searchers, Rio Bravo, High Noon

Books
As You Like It, A Winter's Tale, Will in the World, A Shropshire Lad, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, Book of Psalms, The Song of Solomon, Genesis, Summer of the Red Wolf, Godric, The Passionate Life, Iron John, Traveling Mercies, The Seven Storey Mountain, The Intimate Merton, The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton, Finding Darwin's God, The Human Factor, The End of the Affair, Coming of Age in the Milky Way

That's it. I'd add more but this already is probably more than you ever wanted to know about me!

My daughter during a recent visit
to the Fort Worth Zoo