Senior Scientist
Bill is Senior Scientist at KCP Technologies where he leads the Fathom Dynamic Data™ Software development team. His experience includes software development, curriculum development, research into programming tools, teacher professional development, classroom teaching, and research on learning statistics. He has been principal investigator of several NSF/SBIR and ED/SBIR funded projects, most recently "Fathoming Surveys." Prior to working at KCP Technologies, he served as Educational Technology Director at Key Curriculum Press where, in addition to starting the Fathom project, he conducted research and development of materials to support implementation of The Geometer’s Sketchpad and led the NSF/SBIR-supported effort to start a professional development center.
Bill's experience as a software developer began in 1978 at San Francisco State University working with Diane Resek to create curriculum and computer environments for Statistics without Fear, Computers without Fear, and Computers in the Classroom. With Resek, he co-authored the Mirrors on the Mind software series and was co-PI of the Math Worlds project and the Computer Curriculum Cadre project. His research with Laura Gould at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center culminated in the development of a Smalltalk-based authoring environment called Programming by Rehearsal. At the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, he led the team that developed DataRelator, an early hypertext relational database. Bill’s current interests center on developing software and curriculum to prepare students and teachers to make intelligent use of the data deluging our society.
Recent Teaching & Consulting Work:
2007–2008. Course developer for Teaching Statistics with Fathom, an online course offered by Key Curriculum Press with graduate credit through UC Berkeley Extension 2007.
2006–2009. Member of AIMS advisory board, University of Minnesota.
2005–2009. Consultant to the Model Chance project, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
2002–2005. Consultant to Connecting Science and Mathematics Through Data, Epistemological Engineering.
2001–2004. Consultant to Visualizing Statistical Relationships, TERC, a leading education research and development organization.
Selected Publications:
Finzer, Erickson, Swenson, & Litwin (2007). On Getting More and Better Data Into the Classroom. Technology Innovations in Statistics Education, 1(1)
Finzer W. (2006) What does dragging this do?—The role of dynamically changing data and parameters in building a foundation for statistical understanding, in Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Teaching Statistics, Voorburg: International Statistics Institute.
Finzer W. (2006) Fathom Dynamic Data Software, Key Curriculum Press
Finzer, W., Schwartz, S., & Dever, H. (2005). Data Are Everywhere. Emeryville, CA: Key Curriculum Press.
Finzer W, Erickson TE. (2004) Curriculum Innovations Based on Census Microdata: A Meeting of Statistics, Mathematics, and Social Science, in Proceedings of the International Association for Statistical Education (IASE) Roundtable on "Curricular Development in Statistics Education", International Statistical Institute.
Finzer, William. “The Fathom Experience—Is Research-Based Development of a Commercial Statistics Learning Environment Possible?” Proceedings of the International Conference on Teachings Statistics, (South Africa: 2002)
Finzer, William, et al. A Workshop Guide for Fathom. Emeryville, California: Key Curriculum Press, 2000
Finzer, William and Tim Erickson. “DataSpace—A Computer Learning Environment for Data Analysis and Statistics Based on Dynamic Dragging, Visualization, Simulation, and Networked Collaboration.” Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Teaching of Statistics, Vol. 2 (Voorburg, Netherlands: International Statistical Institute, 1998).
Finzer, William and Nicholas Jackiw. “The Geometer’s Sketchpad: Programming by Geometry,” Watch What I Do: Programming by Demonstration. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1993.
Finzer, William and Dan Bennett. “From Drawing to Construction with The Geometer’s Sketchpad.” The Mathematics Teacher, Vol. 88(5) (1995) 428–431
Finzer, William, et al. “Sampling.” Journal of Mathematical Behavior, Vol. 6(2), (1987), 149-156.
Finzer, William and Diane Resek.Strategy (Mirrors on the Mind). Boston: Addison–Wesley, 1986.
Finzer, William and Laura Gould. “Programming by Rehearsal.” Byte, Vol. 9(6) (June 1984) 187-210.