About Me...

The Early Years
My first years were spent in Luverne, a very small town in south-central Alabama where my mother's family had lived for several generations. This was a wonderful town to be a kid in especially if your grandfather was the mayor like my grandfather was. I spent many days playing in the hardware store that my grandfather and his brothers ran on the main street in Luverne.

Later when I was in elementary school we moved to Birmingham, and it is there that I graduated from high school. I was the oldest of four boys in my family and spent many of my growing up days riding bicycles and playing baseball when not in school. While in high school my favorite subjects were math and science. I played both baseball and football on our high school teams and was involved in school politics. When people would ask where we were from, we often replied "LA". Of course, most would assume we meant Los Angeles, but where I come from "LA" meant Lower Alabama!

College Years
After graduating from high school I worked for almost a year then headed to Auburn University where my grandfather had been dean of engineering and both my parents had attended. As you might guess, going to Auburn wasn't really a decision for me, it was what you did after high school in my family. Because of my interest and ability in math and science and my grandfather's career in engineering, as a freshman I majored in engineering. Quickly I saw this was not the direction for me and in my sophomore year switched my major to psychology. While an undergraduate I began working part time in the counseling center on different research projects. In order to analyze the data from these projects, I learned to program computers and thus began a lifelong interest in using technology. After completing my undergraduate degree I continued into the master's program in clinical psychology.

Along the way I realized that I was much more interested in how people learned and developed normally rather than the abnormal manifestations we were studying in clinical psychology, so I switched into education. After completing a master's degree, I worked in the central office of a school system for almost two years trying to change how we educated children by using more modern ideas about learning theory coupled with technology. This was to become my life's work, but I didn't realize it at the time. I went to Florida State University to complete my Ph.D. the same year that Robert Gagne joined the faculty there. I thought then that Dr. Gagne was the most outstanding learning theorist in America if not the world; I still believe this. I went to be his first Ph.D. student at Florida State University and while there worked half-time in a research center that investigated computer applications to instruction.

Adult Years
In the 30 or so years after completing my Ph.D. I have worked as a faculty member teaching and doing research on learning and instruction, particularly instruction delivered via technology. However, the dominant factor in my adult life is not my work but rather my family. I have the wonderful fortune of being the father of three children who are adults themselves now. I am grandfather to two joyous children. I try to balance my time between family, friends, and work with occasional trips to a baseball park or art museum. Through my work I have been able to travel widely in South and Central America, Africa, and Asia. I continue to be interested in how different organizations as well as different cultures provide for education and training opportunities. I have been able to follow and participate in instructional uses of technology as this has evolved in corporations, governmental agencies, and public schools and universities. This is indeed a wonderful time for someone like myself who is interested in learning and technology to be alive!