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I will try to introduce myself as a long time faculty member
in the Department of Mathematics Education. The key dates in my
career at Georgia are given in the resume
on my Web Site at Http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu or Http://math.coe.uga.edu/jwilson/jwilson.html, along with supporting
information about other matters in this statement. My first appointment
at UGa was in 1968 and tenure was in 1971.
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, an at least since 1992, I may be the only
faculty member in the department who would have enrolled every
graduate student -- and many undergraduates -- in at least
one class during a degree program.
The courses I have taught in recent years include EMAT 4680/6680
Technology in Secondary School Mathematics, EMAT 4690/6690 Technology
Enhanced Instruction in Secondary School Mathematics, EMAT 4700/6700
Advanced Explorations with Technology in Mathematics Instruction,
and EMT 4600/6600 Mathematics Problem Solving. In addition I have
directed many enrollments in independent study, led EMAT 8990 seminars,
supervised Ed.S. applied projects, and directed doctoral dissertations.
I make a concerted effort to be accessible to students and take
very seriously my responsibilities for advisement of students
at all levels. From now until retirement, I anticpate continued
work with EMAT 4680/6680, EMAT 4690/6690, EMAT 4700/6700, and
EMT 4600/6600. Each of these courses will become increasingly
available via distance education over Internet access.
Innovation. I have experimented with and implement many
uses of technology, and that experimentation is on-going. The
Internet Web Page 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 6600), use of the
Web Page in directed study (e.g. see EMAT
6950), making available papers I have written (e.g. see
Papers), making available matter
from my students (e.g. Samples),
making available papers from others, implementing projects (e.g.
EMAT Multicultural
Web Site, CPTM, or CPTM Situations Project), making available personal information (e.g.
this statement, the resume, etc.)
Aside from the Internet access, I have developed the EMAT 4680/6680,
EMAT 469)/669), and EMAT 470)/670) around extensive use of technology
tools for mathematics exploration, learning, and teaching. I have
incorporated technology tools into the EMAT 4600/6600 course.
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 30,000 "hits" per week. My
site is linked by other major sites such as the Math Forum, which
adds to the number of contacts received.
I expect that the continued exploration with technology and internet
access will be an interest and activity for me in the next few
years. The technology is now becoming available to implement true
interactive distance education to extend our outreach into the
field. Experimentation is needed to make sure we do it well and
do it in useful ways.
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. I continue to be involved in LPSL
activities.
The GRA activities have benefited the Department of Mathematics
Education in many ways. Much of our Ethernet and computer infrastructure
was from GRA funds.
The GRA activities involved a lot of my time. The record is one
of considerable impact and accomplishment. Yet, the record also
shows that I received no workload assignment for the work with
GRA, GCATT, and LPSL.
One major collaboration with LPSL in recent years, and continuing, is Project InterMath. Project InterMath was funded in 1999 for five years. It target research, development, and implementation of inservice mathematics teacher education for middle school teachers. The emphasis was on improving the content preparation of middle school mathematics teachers and developing their expertise to use technology in their own mathematics explorations as well as in their instruction. Unlike most NSF or other externally funded projects, InterMath continues to flourish 4 years after the NSF funding cycle. Through the hard work of LPSL staff and EMAT graduate students in continues to be available as a valuable resource for mathematics teacher and mathematics teacher educators.
Doctoral Program. I have been the major professor for 53
of the doctoral graduates of the Department of Mathematics Education
(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.
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. My professional impact has extended to national
and international involvement in a variety of ways. In recent
years this has included twice being nominated for president of
NCTM, being a member of the NCTM assessment standards writing
team, being chair of the NCTM task force on technology, conducting
workshops and making presentations in Thailand, Sweden, and Israel,
being involved in research projects in Israel and Japan, and expanded
contact with mathematics educators at many levels via the Internet.
I has served as a consultant to funded projects from NSF to the
University of Missouri, Hunter College, Georgia Tech, Clemson,
and the University of North Florida and from FIPSE to Clemson
and Hunter.