Enhancing visual thinking and learning with computer graphics and virtual environment design

Prior to language development, all proto-human had was his senses and a significantly evolving brain [Bolles (1991) A Second Way of Knowing, Prentice Hall, New York]. Since we understand now how critically important language is to thinking, how could proto-human "think" in the absence of language as we know it? One answer is that proto-human depended upon visual learning as a primordial form of cognition, what we call today, "a second way of learning" with verbal learning presumably serving as the first learning system. The modern age has permitted visual learning to take a back-seat to verbal learning, however the capabilities of emerging digital visual technologies may help us recapture and extend our visual thinking and learning capabilities. This paper attempts to scratch the surface with regard to the visual thinking and learning potential afforded by the recent evolution in some computer graphics technologies. A general discussion of the scope and definition of visual thinking and learning is integrated with examples of both current research strategies and current and proposed teaching strategies. Our main focus has been on applications within a visually based art curriculum although computer graphics spans several discipline areas and, in most cases, includes some form of cooperative environment and development. Hence, it is hoped that the information contained here may have some useful applications to curriculum design in other discipline areas such as computer science, communication, mathematics and physics, just to name a few.