Mathwright32
is an unusual program. It was born in the twilit dreamscapes of another time...a
time and place where Science and Fiction met and played in our minds, where
"Robbie the Robot" and "HAL" play chess still, and Androids might well dream
of "Electric Sheep." We remember the time. "Electronic
computers" were magical, mysterious, and totipotential. Remote and inaccessible
as they were, they did a thing then, that they rarely do today. They stirred
our imaginations. And this, in the author's view, has always been their greatest
promise.
But
computer software has other promises to keep, and, true to the vision we glimpsed
only dimly in our youth, computers and their software are patiently and quietly
transforming our world. They are opening vast new vistas of communication
and social interaction, of commerce and scientific research, and have become
the pliant instruments of creative minds in all of the arts, making possible
entirely new forms of expression and entertainment. But in these roles, they
tend to be the passive instruments of our imaginations, only rarely are they
the active source of new ideas.
Now software environments that can bring the player "under the spell" of an
imaginary world they create, and can make the player an active participant
in that microworld can touch and stir the imagination of the player. And if
the microworld mirrors and illuminates the conventions that we teach in the
schools, then the player also becomes a learner, and the author a teacher.
In this way, software environments can provide entirely new learning experiences
and possibilities for students. This is what MathwrightWeb makes it possible
for authors to do. Mathwright32 Author is an authoring program for the dreamers
who would create on the warp and woof of science and art, virtual worlds that
will stimulate the imagination and the curiosity of their readers.
It is a Visualization Studio in which you may sketch on a dynamic 3D canvas
the pictures of natural (and artificial) processes that model the world around
us. Those "pictures," being dynamic, can give your readers the opportunity
to explore, to ask questions, and to invent. The pictures should be realistic,
and at the same time responsive and expressive.
And this is what makes Mathwright32 unusual. It brings to the author a platform
that is dedicated to creating pedagogically compelling simulations and visualizations.
For this, it organizes into a single language:
- interactive 32-bit 3D graphics (based on OpenGL),
- an object-oriented development environment, and
- a mathematical scripting language called MathScript
- real-time simulations in the browser with MathwrightWeb
MathScript
combines both decimal and symbolic mathematics with a flexible and expressive
idiom for creating and managing complex and interesting simulations through
user-defined object hierarchies.
Mathematics (and especially geometry) will always play an important role in
constructing 3D simulations, simply because scripts must move the actors correctly.
MathScript and OpenGL will "do the math" for you at the lowest levels. Mathwright32
provides a high-level language environment in which you may design your scenes
and interactions abstractly, and from the top down, and then tell the lower
levels of the language what "math" to do in those abstract terms.
We
have not yet learned how to translate the hypnotic allure of video games (Myst,
Riven, even Super Mario Brothers 3!) into effective learning experiences for
mathematics and science, but we know that the key is through interactive simulations.
These have been successful in teaching since the early days, in environments
like Tom Snyder's Halley Project, and the Logo Turtle
environments, and these would never be mistaken for 'edutainment'.
Teachers
who might like to create 3D simulations for their students, or students who
just want to play, may download from the
Free Stuff page, a
free copy of the 512 page manual for MindScapes,
the 3D Graphics interface for our Mathwright32 Simulation ToolKit, in Microsoft
WORD 97 format.
In this way, you can read about it first, before you decide whether to buy
Mathwright32 Author.
| - James E. White, Ph.D. , Library Director, | ||
| author of this website, Mathwright Author 2000, | ||
| Mathwright MindScapes, and Lava |
