What Are Visualization Tools?

To some extent, draw and paint packages provide those visual prostheses, enabling us to visually represent what we know. They provide sophisticated tools that enable us to draw and paint objects electronically. However, to represent our mental images using paint/draw programs, we have to translate those images into a series of motor operations because it is not yet possible to dump our mental images directly from our brains into a computer. Skilled artists commonly use these tools to visualize ideas, which can help others to interpret ideas. But what we need are tools that help most of us to visualize ideas.

This article describes a new but rapidly growing class of technologies that allow us to reason and represent ideas visually without the artistic skills required to produce original illustrations. These tools help us interpret and represent visual ideas and to automate some of the manual processes for creating images. Visualization tools can have two major uses: interpretive and expressive (Gordin, Edelson, & Gomez, 1996). Interpretive tools help learners view and manipulate visuals, extracting meaning from the information being visualized. Interpretive illustrations help clarify difficult-to-understand text and abstract concepts, making them more comprehensible (Levin, Anglin, & Carney, 1987). Expressive visualization helps learners visually convey meaning to communicate a set of beliefs. Crayons, paints, and paper or paint and draw programs are powerful expressive tools that gifted learners may use to express themselves visually. However, they rely on graphical talent. Visualization tools go beyond paint and draw programs by scaffolding or supporting some form of expression. They help learners visualize ideas in ways that make them more easily interpretable by themselves and other viewers.

There are five kinds of visualization tools: scientific visualization tools, mathematical visualization tools, digital cameras and mobile phones, video productions, and video modeling and feedback.