MULTIMEDIA AS A COMPONENT/ELEMENT OF A CHEMISTRY COURSEBOOK

The key to teach effectively and efficiently is to combine various elements of representation and visualization, work interactively and make connections between the learner's emotions, images and sensations. A good example of how these principles are applied to teaching is a Polish chemistry coursebook Ciekawa Chemia (The Absorbing Chemistry). The coursebook includes a set of CDs which contain multimedia lessons supported with animations, simulations of processes and chemical phenomena, dynamic and three-dimensional models of elements and compounds, tests and tasks aimed at solving problems as well as film sequences presenting for instance chemical experiments. Thanks to these films, the learner can see particular elements of a given experiment in detail, analyse interrelations between them and memorize how the experiment is carried out as the films can be played repeatedly. Such a way of presenting chemical experiments can help both those teachers and learners who, for various reasons, cannot carry out certain experiments themselves, as well as those seeking inspiration for carrying out new experiments, and most of all those looking for proper didactic tools to explain difficult questions. It seems worth mentioning that the experiments presented on the CDs can be carried out safely and economically. Their visualizations allow to create images of experiments in the learner's mind which, though cannot replace carrying out experiments in reality but may well constitute a valuable educational tool.