Image ProcessingTechnology: A New Look at Old Things
by Charles Babatu Murphy, Technology Specialist, St. Louis Public Schools Incubator Scientist Program
Imagine if your class could consult with top level researchers. Imagine if your students could directly apply the skills they learn in the classroom to current technologies. That's exactly what students are doing across the United States--thanks to the wonders of digital image processing.
Increasingly, the ways we handle information both in schools and in the workplace, are changing to digital formats. Image processing, a technology that allows us to manipulate and analyze data in the form of digital images, is quickly becoming a basic tool for survival in the information age. Students with image processing skills are able to work on the cutting edge of scientific inquiry. For example, as a consultant for the St. Louis Public Schools and for Washington University, I've arranged for students to work with mentors at the Mallinkrodt Institute of Radiology in St. Louis. One student and her physician mentor will use image processing technology to investigate the existence of a new facial muscle. Another student, working with images from the Oriental Institute in Chicago, used image processing to explore the x-rays of mummies.
But you don't have to send your students out of the classroom in order to achieve benefits from image processing. This technology is available in specially-designed classroom lessons, thanks to the non-profit Center for Image Processing in Education (CIPE). CIPE produces guidebooks and computer- based lessons designed for classroom use as well as provides workshops to educators that teach the basics of image processing.
I find image processing especially valuable for fostering students' critical thinking and problem solving skills. In a math class, for instance, I have used the image processing technique called "stacking" (a way to electronically combine and display many 2-dimensional images in a 3-dimensional form). First, I create a stack of twenty red disks on black backgrounds and ask students to predict the shape of the stack when projected in 3-D. Will it be a cone, a cylinder, or a circle? Students test their predictions and problem- solve errors as they learn spatial visualization, and you can see a whole new world of understanding open up for them.
Image processing helps people take a new look at the familiar world around us. Too often we "look at" phenomena and don't really observe them. Once phenomena are digitized into images, however, what was previously invisible, or unrecognizable to the human eye, can become apparent. Digital image processing is a tool to visualize and explore connections between things in a new way. Nothing is as it appears to be. We must look beneath the surface. This sets the stage for dialogue and enhanced communication.
Larry Mascotti, an innovator in the use of image processing in education and Planetarium Director for the Rochester (MN) Public Schools, says it this way, "We are visual creatures. Our minds follow our eyes. Image processing offers students the opportunity to observe something and to interact with what they observe--even to manipulate it. The data might have been collected on a hillside, through an electron microscope, or through a telescope. The point is that students working with image processing are engaged with real data which is connected to the real world. That's very exciting."
Mascotti goes on to describe other ways classrooms across the U.S. employ image processing. "Students apply mathematics directly to learn the concept of pi by measuring digital images of circles--everything from a dime to a bicycle wheel to a satellite picture of the Earth. Biology students use digital images to perform non-invasive probing of the bodies of mammals. In this way, they can better understand the comparative anatomy of hands, hooves, paws, and flippers."
He adds, "Image processing puts learning in the hands of the students and creates open-ended, interactive learning situations. It's not a simulation, not a multimedia show, not a recipe that everyone follows without innovation. It's real."
Other advantages of using image processing in the classroom include enhanced teamwork skills and increased student enthusiasm. While image processing can't guarantee young people a seat on the next space shuttle, the students of two Minnesota colleagues did see their botany project included on a recent NASA launch. Students of physics instructor Steve Brehmer and biology instructor Elissa Elliott at Mayo High School in Rochester, MN used image processing to test a hypothesis concerning the growth of beans in a zero gravity environment.
Robert Kolvoord, professor at James Madison University and chairperson of the Board of Trustees for the Center for Image Processing in Education, says, "One concern in education is how to take the computers that are becoming more and more common in the classroom and put them to good use. Image processing technology is an effective way to address this concern. Image processing also answers questions such as how do school districts provide a cost-effective use of the Internet¹ and how do we avoid using computers as electronic babysitters?¹ Image processing uses computers to give students skills that are relevant in today's workplace."
Kolvoord continues, "School districts can no longer afford teachers who simply use the old 'sage on the stage' methodology. Students demand more hands-on learning, and image processing is always fresh, never stale. Both teachers and students continue to learn new things."
Mascotti concurs, "More than 3,500 teachers nationwide use image processing. Lots of people are already shareholders in this idea. Image processing is a tool that we can't neglect. It's going to take its place alongside traditional tools such as beakers and rulers. This is the revolution that the new millennium is bringing us. Outside the walls of the school, we know it's the real world and we have to prepare our students. Image processing technology can be the bridge to the next millennium."
More and more, school districts realize that when they incorporate image processing into the curriculum, they avoid training their students in outdated skills. Instead, students appreciate working with cutting-edge technology and those who master the techniques of image processing are well positioned to start their careers. Image processing is a tool used in many fields with many opportunities. That's a real plus in today's tough job market.
If you'd like to learn more about how image processing technology could benefit your students, the National Imaging Technology Conference is a good place to start. The conference brings together nationally-renowned imaging specialists, educators, and students to explore creative classroom strategies and the latest developments in workplace technology. The conference sponsor, the Center for Image Processing in Education, also sponsors workshops throughout the year.
Through field trips and presentations by industry professionals, conference participants learn about some of the careers and areas of research related to the use of image processing such as bio-imaging, virtual reality, semiconductor manufacture, television and video production, aircraft maintenance, astronomy, and others. Through networking at the National Imaging Technology Conference, I received a standing invitation from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN for assistance with my students' projects. That's a powerful school-to-work link.
But the best thing that happens is when teachers exchange ideas that really work in their classrooms. You come home with instantly usable plans that make your students sit up and say, 'Wow!'
"Goals for teachers who attend the 1998 conference," said CIPE director Melanie Magisos, "will be to learn more about image processing, to share successful strategies with other teachers from elementary to college level, and to network with industry representatives. The sky is the limit for how you employ image processing in the classroom."
The National Imaging Technology Conference is the only national forum to discuss image processing's unlimited possibilities in the classroom. Being able to speak the language of image processing has opened up a whole new understanding for me as an educator. Because of image processing, my students and I are able to step into the information age with confidence.
Remember: A picture is worth a thousand words, but an image is worth a thousand pictures.
The Center for Image Processing in Education will hold the next National Imaging Technology Conference July 23-25, 1998, in Phoenix, Arizona.
For more information, e-mail us, call 800/322-9884, or e-mail Charles Murphy.
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