Having grown up the son of a public school teacher and administrator in rural southwest Tennessee Bill Jackson possesses a truly unique understanding of the importance of distance learning in today’s society. Entering school in 1961 one would have been hard pressed to find a more challenging location from which to begin their educational experience than the small agricultural town in which he grew up. But instead of simply accepting the limited educational resources available to him at that time. Bill sought to augment his primary education by taking advantage of the many opportunities offered by a relatively new technology known as broadcast television.

During these early years of network programming many hours of historical, political and scientific documentaries offered viewers the opportunity to gain knowledge and insight into national and world events in an entirely new way. This opportunity, of course, was not one taken lightly by a young boy eager to expand his knowledge far beyond the geographical and economic limitations of his environment.

Bill’s interest in instructional technology continued to develop during high school where he began to acquired a high level of knowledge and expertise in audiovisual aides and instructional resources. This trend continued during his college when he was assigned to assist the English Department staff with document processing. And after receiving his Bachelors Degree (B.S.) from the University of Tennessee at Martin (UTM) in 1979 he enrolled at Vanderbilt University (UV) and was employed in the Peabody Instructional Media Center while earning his Masters Degree (M.Ed.).

Shortly after graduating from Vanderbilt in 1981 Bill was hired by the University of Memphis (UM) as a Treatment Specialist in the Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation. While employed there Bill assisted with the development and field-testing of the National Easter Seal Society’s Project MEMPHIS Computerized Developmental Evaluation System and the editing of an instructional textbook entitled Basic Programming for Educators authored by UM Professor Steven Ross and published by Prentice-Hall.

After receiving his Educational Specialist Degree (Ed. S.) from the University of Memphis Bill accepted a teaching position with the District School Board of Collier County and relocated to Naples Florida. For the past fifteen years he has worked as a Human Resource Development Specialist, an Instructional Technology Specialist, and the Coordinator/Project Manager for the Florida Diagnostic and Learning Resources System. A state and federally funded statewide network of educational resource centers.

In serving in the role of Instructional Technology Specialist Bill developed keen an interest in video-conferencing and telecommunications and became involved with group of Educators from Ft. Lauderdale and Miami who were forming a local distance learning consortium. This group eventually became the Florida Distance Learning Association (FDLA) and he was elected to the organizations first Board of Directors and has since served at FDLA President and Board Chairman.

During his tenure with the FDLA Bill presented at numerous professional conferences including TeleCon West, e-learning Conference & Expo, Closing the Gap, the Florida Educational Technology Conference, the Florida Assistive Technology Impact Conference, and also hosted the first FDLA Distance Learning Conference. While representing the FDLA he also had the opportunity to collaborate with United States Distance Learning Association Officials on several local initiatives and he is now very excited about this new opportunity to continue developing these relationships on the national level.