I am the Senior Director of Teaching and Learning with Technologyfor Penn State University. In this role, I have the opportunity to help direct and drive the direction of the University’s commitment to teaching and learning with technology in both online and resident spaces. I am lucky enough to work with an amazing staff who are dedicated to transforming the use of technology in teaching and learning. We focus our energy on instructional design, educational technology, digital media, classroom and lab design, University wide training, web technologies, and faculty development.
TLT leads efforts to bring University wide podcasting and blogging services to faculty, staff, and students. We are also responsible for the Media Commons initiative, the TLT Symposium, Adobe Connect, iTunes U, the Education Gaming Commons, and supporting the use of ANGEL for teaching and learning.
We oversee all of the general purpose classrooms (GPC) in cooperation with various committees and decision making bodies. We also manage all public computing labs on campus. Through ITS Training Services we offer face to face and online training to faculty, staff, and students. Through our relationship with Lynda.com we can provide just in time online training to all of our audiences.
I focus all the time I can (when I am not being an administrator and managing my staff) thinking about how technology can be used to extend the reach of teaching and learning. I travel quite a bit — meeting with other Institutions, participating in the CIC Learning Technologies Committee, working with industry partners, giving talks, and exploring new opportunities. You can keep up with the work I do and the stuff I am thinking about by reading my blog. I am also faculty for Educause in the Learning Technologies Leadership Institute.
Before becoming the Senior Director of TLT I was Director of Education Technology Services at Penn State for 5 years. Prior to that I spent six years as the Director of the IST Solutions Institute in the College of IST at Penn State University. In that role, it was my responsibility to set the strategic goals of the Institute and to direct a majority of the activities that go on there. I was given the opportunity to create an Institute from the ground up and I am very proud of the things we did and the people who did them.
Prior to Penn State I was part of a small start-up in the greater Philadelphia region. It was with Cogence Media that I got my first taste of using technology to enhance learning. We focused energy on the creation of OSHA training courseware — first on CD-ROM and then via the web. While I was there I started our web presence and worked to create the first versions of our high and low bandwidth online courseware. We did some pretty amazing things back in the day working with good old fashioned HTML, home grown content management, and Macromedia’s Authorware. Cogence taught me a ton about what I do now and the people I worked with there showed me how you can be both committed to quality and innovation. There are days I miss the little shop in the woods where so much of what I do now was created.
I have a BS in Psychology from West Virginia University and an MS in Instructional Technology from Bloomsburg University. I am the father to two wonderful little children. My daughter, Madeline is ten years old and her little brother, Max is five. You can keep up with me on Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Diigo, and a bunch of other places online.