Jim Wilson
Department of Mathematics Education
The past 5 years have been the most difficult and frustrating of my time at Georgia. The key dates in my career at Georgia are given in the resume. The first appointment was in 1968 and tenure was in 1971. I received post-tenure review in 1997 and 2002. The process was distasteful in on those dates and I have even less enthusiasm for it now. Even as I write this statement I am not sure I should pursue another post-tenure review. The time from 2003 to 2005, when the department was in turmoil over the involuntary merger, was extremely difficult. I resigned as graduate coordinator in March 2005, effective August 2005, and made plans to retire at the end of the Fall 2005 semester. The merger and the leadership situation in the merged department was intolerable. The new leadership appointed, in December 2005, asked me to stay on, and resume the role of graduate coordinator for mathematics educaiton, for one semester. It took four semesters to find a new graduate coordinator.
Realistically, it is hard for me
to envision the next five years. My limited vision of the 5 year
horizon is not a lack of optimism about our mathematics education
programs, but rather an appraisal of my role. As of December 31,
2002, I had 40 years service credit in the Georgia retirement
system. That means I have reached maximum service credit. Further,
the retirement system guidelines show the potential for my retirement
benefits are decreasing about 1% each year because of the actuarial
tables for joint survivor benefits. Maintaining current levels
of retirement benefits means increasing the base. Now I have reached
a point with the TRS that the base can no longer be increased;
retirement benefits are fixed.
Instruction. I am proud to say I am a teacher. My teaching
has an impact on students that extends beyond the class enrollments
and beyond the walls of the university. It makes a difference
in their further studies and in their own teaching. I believe
for the past several years, at least since 1992, I may be the
only faculty member in the department who would have enrolled
almost every graduate student (Margaret Sloan did not take
a class from me) -- and many undergraduates -- in at least one
class during a degree program.
Graduate Coordinator. I served three times as Graduate Coordinator
for Mathematics Education. The first was from 1969 to 1993 when
I was jointly department head and graduate coordinator. The second
time was from a three year appointment from 1999 to 2005 -- it
was the leadership of the department who could not do the arithmetic
on that one and a replacement was not found until August 2005.
In December 2005, my August 2005 replacement was promoted to Department
Head and she asked me to stay and resume the role of Graduate
Coordinator for a semester since no one else knew the process.
In late December, Salli Park died, and not only was there no faculty
member ready to handle the processes for the graduate coordinator,
there was also no staff member who was familiar with the admissions,
the records, or the management. I would argue that one of my best
accomplishments as a faculty member during this time is that the
graduate students and the graduate program in mathematics education
were relatively untouched by the upheaval of the merger, the leadership
problems, and the transition. We have continued to attract good
quality doctoral students and we have done well in the university-wide
competitions for Presidential Graduate Fellows Program awards,
Graduate School Assistantship awards, Dissertation year Assistantship
Awards, and Graduate Recruitment Opportunity awards. If accomplishment
in the past five years is a basis for a positive PTR, my role
as graduate coordinator. Note that my annual review in one year
did not mention my work as graduate coordinator
My assigned workload is for instruction and research. I have not
accepted workload for graduate coordination because I did not
wish to give up my instruction time (a position that was unacceptable
to the Department leadership in 2004-2005 and led to my resignation
as graduate coordinator). In the past five years I have taught
EMAT 6680 (two or three sections per year), EMAT 4690/6690 (two
sections per year), EMAT 6700 (twice),EMAT 4600/6600 (two sections
per year except 2004 when I was not allowed to teach summer),
and EMAT 7700 (teaching internship). In addition I have directed
many enrollments in independent study, led EMAT 6990 and 8990
seminars, supervised Ed. S. applied projects, and directed doctoral
dissertations. I am accessible to students and take very seriously
my responsibilities for advisement. I have not advised undergraduates
since 1999.
.
Innovation. All of my course materials are on web pages.
The Internet Web site at Http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu
contains many examples of these innovations. These include use
of the Web Page for implementing courses that I teach (e.g. see
EMAT 6680 or EMAT 4600/6600), use of the
Web Page in directed study making available papers I have written
(e.g. see Papers), making
available material from my students (e.g. Samples),
making available papers from others, implementing projects (e.g.
EMAT
Multicultural Web site, the EMAT Contextual Teaching and
Learning site, the InterMath site, and the Center for Proficiency
in Teaching Mathematics site), making available personal information
(e.g. this statement, the resume, etc.)
Aside from the Internet access, I have developed the EMAT 6680,
EMAT 4690/6690, and EMAT 4700/6700 around extensive use of technology
tools for mathematics exploration, learning, and teaching. I have
incorporated technology tools into the EMAT 4600/6600 course.
The materials for EMAT 6680 and the collections of problems in
EMAT 4600/6600 are presented on the Web Site so as to always be
available to students and to take advantage of the hypertext format
to link to hints, solutions, other problems, or applications.
The Web Site has extended my impact to mathematics education beyond
my classes. The site receives extensive contact from throughout
the world, in the range of 35,000 "hits" per week. My
site is linked by other major sites such as the Math Forum, which
adds to the number of contacts received.
The Georgia Research Alliance. In 1991, I was asked by
Dean Buccino to take leadership in our input to the Georgia Research
Alliance (GRA) through
collaboration with the Georgia Center for Advanced Telecommunications
Technology (GCATT)
at Georgia Tech. Over the next three years this led to our UGA
team receiving funding from GRA for approximately $2.3M. This
was matched with extensive funding from the UGA Foundation, from
the UGA operational budget, and from external projects. The Learning
and Performance Support Laboratory (LPSL)
was organized and I served as its acting director until an Eminent
Scholar for Technology Enhanced Learning was appointed in 1995.
I wrote the proposal that led to the creation of the Eminent Scholar
endowed chair. The GRA activities have benefited the Department
of Mathematics Education in many ways. Much of our Ethernet and
computer infrastructure was from GRA funds. I continue to be involved
in LPSL activities.
Project InterMath. One collaboration with LPSL has been
Project InterMath
(Http://www.intermath.uga.edu). This National Science Foundation
funded project was a collaboration among the Department of Mathematics
Education, LPSL, and CEISMC at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Open ended explorations in Algebra, Number, Geometry, and Statistics
were developed on a Web site with the goal of providing classes
for inservice middle school mathematics teachers to improve their
mathematics background and to give them in-depth exprience with
using technology tools in their own mathematics explorations.
The site material was developed at the University of Georgia and
the Web Site was developed and maintained at Georgia Tech. The
site included instructional materials, mapping to QCC objectives,
GPS standards, and NCTM standards, an on-line
mathematics dictionary, a library of course syllabi, a
discussion page for on-line interaction, and a link to staff assistance
for students and instructors.
Development of the web site was a major research and teaching initiative for me since 1998. The site is excellent and is used extensively by facutly and students from all over. The project did not meet the implementation NSF intended (and we promised) but as we adapted to the opportunities in Georgia and elsewhere it has accomplished far more. We found that the support of staff development courses in school systems provided the implementation more readily that college classes. Syllabi for courses were developed and approved by the PSC for staff development with the University of Georgia (through LPSL) providing the monitoring and approval of courses. The Interactive Dictionary was officially adopted by the State Department of Education. LPSL has extended the use of InterMath materials to many other projects, especially those concerned with the implementation of the GPS standards.
What may be rather unique about this NSF funded project is that in continues to be in place and have an impact well after the funding cycle was completed. Three years past the end of the project, InterMath is becoming even more widely used. The web site is now maintained by LPSL. We average over 300 hits per day on the web site. I continue to be involved in the oversight of InterMath.
Contextual Teaching and Learning. The College of Education received a series of grants from the USDOE for a UGa CTL project. The project involved 38 faculty from throughout the university and I was one of the primary participants for three years. The CTL web page gives an overview of the project and its impact on department courses.
Center for Proficiency in Teaching Mathematics. In the fall of 2002 the department was funded for the CPTM. The Center was funded by the National Science Foundation from their Centers for Teaching and Learning program. I am one of the 6 co-PIs to assist Dr. Patricia Wilson, the PI, in developing the project. This is a 5 year collaboration of the University of Georgia and the University of Michigan and each of us have partners with colleges and school systems. In Georgia, our partners are the Board of Regents and the Gwinnett County, Social Circle, and Morgan County schools. The Center agenda includes innovations with teacher education programs, research, and transforming the doctoral program.
Currently, I am involved in something
called the Situations Project which is an extension of our CPTM
work in conjuction with Penn State faculty and the Mid-Atlantic
Consortium. In the Situations project we are developing a framework
for describing Mathematics Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) from the
perspective of looking at mathematics teachers classroom practices.
Doctoral Program. I have been the major professor for 49
doctoral students who have finished their doctorate at UGA. (See
List). The range of research
activities for these doctoral students is quite diverse and underscores
that I continue to have involvement and interest in research activities.
I continue to have contact with all of my students and encourage
them with their efforts at establishing scholarly productivity.
Currently, I have five doctoral advisees "in progress."
Research interests. I am particularly interested in mathematics
visualization, visual reasoning in mathematics, and development
of understanding in mathematics. In particular, I want to continue
to explore the role and impact of technology tools in mathematics
for creating and manipulating external representations that lead
to students refining and using visual images and visual reasoning.
Other. I was recognized in 2001 with the Lifetime Achievement
Award from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.