Abstract:

One of the challenges of the educational system is to improve its role in the society as a generator of knowledge and social changes. Thanks to research in education, new ideas, proposals and projects have been implemented to achieve these changes. An important element to consider is the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and, within them, the use of virtual tools that take advantage of digital skills of youth and educational projects to modernize schools. Currently, ICT elements play a key role in education; they become not only a tool of access to information but also facilitating elements in the teaching-learning process. The incorporation of ICT tools in education must be a process of collective construction in colleges. It is not enough to have the elements, but they must be articulated with the curriculum, methodology and evaluation processes that are carried out.

In this work, a virtual learning object (VLO) for teaching chemical reactions was designed. The issue was decided on the basis of previous studies, and teaching experience has shown that this issue is hard to comprehend and its assimilation by school students is poor. The subject of chemical reactions raises a number of concepts apparently unrealistic and includes symbology of the chemical, which is difficult to recognize. There are novel concepts such as physical and chemical changes, representations of equations, proportionalities use and application of mathematical calculations.

Students access the concepts involved in chemical reactions, using the VLO; this tool is easy to use and interactive. The exercises into context in real life facilitate the understanding of the subject as a learning process of each student. Through the implementation of this tool and a new design classes it has been achieved better learning and identification of types of reactions. In addition, examples of processes in chemical laboratories are shown.
A feedback form was applied to determine the point of view of a group of students. The VLO was accepted as a tool for the class of chemical reactions. The results of the new classes are very good and VLO improved motivation in class and homework achievement.

The mentioned VLO can be found at: http://www.virtual.unal.edu.co/cursos/ciencias/mtria_ensenanza/reacciones/