With the advent of high technology and especially dynamic visualization software (DVS), I believe that many more students will be able to access and understand complex scientific and math problems and processes. Processes that were once only able to be illustrated in a static manner in a textbook can now become interactive, with the student controlling the process and exploring the results. Because this software will make it easier for more students to gain a better understanding of concepts, I believe that it is necessary. I feel that the most important use of DVS, and the one that makes it necessary, is one that allows students to explore a concept and form some ideas of how the concept works. Good software will scaffold the student so that he or she will be able to draw some conclusions about the activity. Software that simply replaces the information found in a textbook and adds colourful visuals or provides a drill-and-practice environment is helpful, but not necessary.
I believe that DVS will provide options for learning for students, allowing many who, in the past, have been less successful to better understand math and science concepts. In short, the software will allow more students to be more successful. In the past, teachers have presented concepts and formulae, and then students worked with several examples to try to memorize the formulae and/or remember how to plug numbers into the formulae. The most successful students were the ones with the best memories, not necessarily those who had the best understanding of the concepts. One example of DVS providing a more level playing field for students is with the use of graphing calculators. Female students tend to perform better in classes where graphing calculators are used (Pomerantz, 1997).
Another good example of DVS that provides deeper learning through visualization is found in the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives for Interactive Mathematics. In the "Similar Triangles" activity, students build two triangles that are similar according to rules such as SSS, SAS, etc. While "SSS" might not mean much to the student before doing the activity, the ability to manipulate the parts of the triangles and the visuals (the two triangles flash and change colour when one similar triangle is placed on top of the other) provide extra stimulus to learning. This activity could be used in an exploratory manner to allow student to build the concept of similar triangles for themselves. Used in this way, the hope is that more students will build an understanding of triangle similarity rather than having only the "smart" students memorize and be able to regurgitate the terms.
References
Pomerantz, H. (1997). The Role of Calculators in Math Education. Research prepared fo the Urban Systemic Initiative/Comprehensive Partnership for Mathematics and Science Achievement (USI/CPSMA) Superintendents Forum, Dallas, Texas, December 4, 1997. Retrieved from http://