Educating for visual perceptual development through computer graphics technology

The author outlines methods educators can use to develop visual perceptual skills through emerging computer graphics technology. It is argued that, if visual educators can identify methods for developing visual perception and implement these methods into curricula, then students may be able to master a wider array of visual tasks more rapidly with increased visual understanding. The development of visual perception should first be adopted as a major curricular goal of engineering graphics. It is suggested that curricula can be reformatted to provide increased visual perceptual experience. One possibility would be to structure curricula so that they provide a series of instructional steps that lead a student more slowly, i.e. lead from perceiving and drawing real 3-D objects (cut blocks or machine parts), to perceiving and drawing isometrics, to perceiving and drawing isometrics, to perceiving and drawing multiviews. These steps move in a smooth progression from the real to the abstract and provide the inexperienced student with a greater number of intermediate steps to provide perceptual experience he or she may not have received in the past