I find image processing especially valuable for fostering students' critical thinking and problem solving skills. 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. 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. Our minds follow our eyes. 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.