Delivering advanced level Chemistry curriculum (unit one and two) using information and comunication technology : a more effective method of teaching

Abstract

The rapid advances recently made in Information and Communication Technology, particularly in the Internet have very important implications for us as chemical educators. Advances in Information and Communication Technology will mean an enormous increase in the amount of information available to our students. Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) provides the best opportunity for student self-guided learning. As a chemistry teacher, I have observed that students have difficulties in learning the first two units of advanced level chemistry syllabus (Basic concepts and Atomic structure). There is a co-relationship between those topics which describes the evolution of structure of atom. Most of the students neglect this area due to the abstract nature of these topics. To alleviate this problem, I prepared Information and Communication Technology based self learning study pack for selected topics. It was developed by using Macromedia Flash 5 with all technological facilities such as animations, color impacts, fonts and facility to connect with related websites etc, to learn effectively and enjoyably. The effectiveness of study pack was evaluated against the traditional teaching method and there was a significant difference favoring the computer assisted teaching and learning method.