Applications Of Visualization Technology In Education

Along with the development of scientific technology, a large amount of data is generated from our daily life, scientific experiments and industry activities. Because of the limitation of human's data processing ability, much of the data can't be understood by humans. According to the feature of human's eye-brain system, the visualization technology converts data information into image forms which can be easily comprehended by human beings, and help us directly and efficiently to utilize those abstract data information. From the born of visualization technology, it has penetrated into every parts of our lives. It has been applied in medical, biology, geology and aeronautics researches, etc.The importance of visualization application is also approved by world wide educators. They have been researching into visualization education for many years. This paper discusses the applications of visualization technology in education based on these theories of education, psychology and aesthetics. Further, Merrill's first Principles of Education and computer anxiety for visualization instructional design are investigated.Moreover, two visualization instructional design projects directed by College of Information Science and Technology at Beijing Normal University are introduced. First one is the Virtual Physics Experiment Education System for high school physics education from the Software Engineering Lab. This system introduces Virtual Reality technology into Physics education through 3D modeling and implements virtual tour in virtual reality environment, and enables students to experience life-like Physics experiments in person. The other is a Computer Graphics visualization education system produced by Visualization and Virtual Reality Lab. It combines electronic books and educational animations to realize conceptual visualization and program processing visualization for better education purpose.At last, a conclusion of the applications of visualization technology in education is provided and a research plan for future work is proposed.