About the Author
I was born in London, England, and I have lived in the United States since 1994. I earned a PhD in history from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2000. I am currently an Associate Professor of History at Joliet Junior College in Illinois where I teach British History, Latin American History, United States History and World History. I have published articles, encyclopedia entries, and book reviews on a variety of historical topics and on the teaching of history. My book on Chicago public schoolteachers and educational reform in the twentieth century, Teachers and Reform: Chicago Public Education, 1929 - 70, was published by the University of Illinois Press in the summer of 2008.
I started to develop and teach online courses in 2001. It was not the love of technology that first drew me to teaching online but the educational potential and challenges of using the new medium. I believe that the online environment encourages students to take greater control of their own education. I was also attracted to the idea of online teaching because it seemed a challenge to engage students without meeting them face to face.