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M-technology in Chemistry Education

Publication at Faculty of Science, Faculty of Education |
2014

Abstract

Presently, the boom on the market with informational and communicational technology (ICT) causes the functionality of particular devices grows exponentially, whilst the prices drop. This makes ICT available for almost everyone.

Naturally, mobile technologies are popular as users are not bound to a specific place when using them. Except for functions of mobile devices such as a camera, dictaphone, browsing the internet etc., they enable running special applications.

With this rapid "ICTilization", also new educational possibilities arise as it has been observed by the Horizon Reports. In this paper, focus is put on applications (apps) utilizable to Chemistry education.

According to predefined criteria chemistry apps have been selected and tested. The apps were divided into seven categories based on their theme: Research and Reference/Study Guide, Periodic Table, Games and Quizzes, Calculations and Balancing Chemical Equations, Molecular Viewing, Chemical Structure Drawing, Complex apps.

These apps were further evaluated according to the processes they help their users develop. For this evaluation the revised Bloom's taxonomy was used, examples of educational potential are given in the text.

One of the main findings is, the potential of the apps is not fully exploited and the main purpose - distance learning is still limited. Authors made a theoretical background for their next qualitative research - consulting the educational potential of the app with teachers and monitoring how students work with apps.