Teaching Chemistry With Technology

Teaching Chemistry With TechnologyA lot of K-12 teachers are really interested in the new K-12 Chemistry books that are on the market today. Although they say that they will teach students how to do research using 'integrated information technology,' what they really mean is that they will let them use computers, not use them to teach science. How do we know this? Simple, they actually make that claim in the very first page of the book.When I first saw these new chemistry books I was quite impressed by their stunning pictures and all the great teaching materials that they contained. I thought to myself that with all the new technology out there that it would only be a matter of time before I could also use the new technologies to teach my students science.Unfortunately, in my own experience, many science teachers have learned the hard way that the new technology is not an adequate substitute for good old-fashioned hands-on teaching. The only way to get students to want to take a scie nce test, study for a science exam, or even take science classes, is to involve them in every aspect of the learning process. Not only must you teach them how to use the equipment, but you must teach them to do the proper chemistry and research in the classroom.What are some of the problems that a lot of science teachers encounter with the technology? It can be tedious at times to go back and forth between the computer and the teacher. They don't really get a good grasp of how the equipment works when the computer is not available. Also, some chemistry textbooks only cover the topic in the beginning or even the middle of the text, while other chemistry textbooks will go into the depth of the topics.A lot of students don't learn as much in the traditional text book as they would in the electronic textbook. What they don't realize is that most of the electronic text books are too easy for the students to understand, while some of the texts are written to be too complex for the student s to comprehend. So the students get bored after the first few pages and just move on to the next electronic book. I have seen students reading one book after another before they learn a single word or phrase in it.In addition, there are just a few real science texts available on the market today that are truly effective. Now I'm not saying that all electronic texts are ineffective, but there are just too many electronic texts that were written with the aim of creating a quick buck by selling their products to the highest bidder.For you to get a good chemistry text to help you teach your students how to do research and learn science, you need to use a combination of technology and real text. Many online students complain that the chemistry texts that they are forced to use aren't anywhere near the quality of the original text books, and the ones that are available to cost more than their counterparts. With that being said, the electronic books that they offer are the perfect solutio n to teaching chemistry.