KingDraw: Chemical Structure Editor
Reviewer: Scotti-Lynn Moore
Developer: Qingdao KingAgroot Precision Agriculture Technology Co., Ltd.
Operating systems: IOS, Android, Windows
Cost: Free
Version: 2.2.1
http://www.kingdraw.cn/en/index.html
About the App
KingDraw is an app that allows organic chemistry students to practice drawing chemical structures while helping the learner to connect the chemical name to the structure. This app would be helpful for university and college students who need extra help practicing and associating chemical structures commonly studied in organic chemistry class with their names and properties.
Categorization and Learner Needs
According to the article Educational Apps Ontology, mobile apps can be broken down into a few categories and pedagogical design purposes pertaining to their individual purpose. In terms of broad categories, there are 3 main ones explored by the authors: instructive, manipulable, and constructive. Instructive apps focus on “drill-and- practice” where the learners are supposed to complete a standardized task, where there are predetermined “correct” answers. Manipulable apps focus on discovery and experimentation via guided inquiry—but once again, the outcome is predetermined. Constructive apps are “open-ended”, allowing the user to freely creative according to their preferences. Additionally, an app’s purpose can take on a few different forms, and thus be broken into 6 groups: Knowledge and Skill Building, Collaboration, Learning and Teaching Support, Communication, and Other Tools and Reference apps. Knowledge and Skill Building apps are the broadest in terms of uses—these apps consist of simple calculators to complex educational games which uses extrinsic motivators such as leveling up, points, and high scores to increase engagement. “They most likely address the first two levels from the bloom taxonomy: Remember (identify, recall) and Understand (compare, match, classify)” (Notari et al., 2016). Collaborative apps include learners working as a group to create something, such as the Google Doc app. Learning and Teaching Support apps use the learner-provided content to help them learn using a built-in learning strategy, i.e., flashcards, homework scheduling, etc. Communication apps focus exclusively on providing a conduit for ease of communication, i.e., Slack. These apps are extremely useful in learning environments as they help the learner to ask questions and receive feedback in a timely manner. Finally, Other tools and reference apps are just that—tools and references to aid in the learning process, i.e., calculators, maps, etc.
Using these definitions, the KingDraw app would be classified as an constructive app as its purpose is to be a combination of a Learning and Teaching Support and Other Tools and Reference app. This is evident by the fact that its main function is to help the user to practice drawing/constructing molecules and have a directory to be able to look up chemicals based on their chemical, formula, or written structure name. The learner can use the “whiteboard” to practice drawing parts of a compound, and the app will convert it to easier to follow text, allowing the student to practice their structures and seeing the name translation. The app itself provides the crucial knowledge base while the learner explores the various organic chemical compounds to increase their understanding of what they are made of and how they work.
In comparing to the Learner’s Needs (Notari et al., 2016), KingDraw helps learners within the Cognitive domain, specifically through “practice problem solving” as the learner can practice drawing molecules and chemical reaction pathways, and “process new information” to learn more details on each molecule as needed.
Other Related Pedagogical Themes
KingDraw is a supplemental tool to help students studying organic chemistry as another resource and practice tool, serving as straightforward example of how informal learning can contribute to advancing the learner’s understanding, aiding them in their formal learning environment. As explored in the article Learning theories and education: Toward a decay of synergy, informal learning is referred to as “the largely emergent occasions of learning that occur in homes, on playgrounds, among peers, and in other situations where a designed and planned educational agenda is not authoritatively sustained over time” (Bransford et al, 2006). KingDraw offers no learning structure—it is merely to help students as another learning resource. Prompted by only the user’s desire to increase their understanding and comfort level with the subject matter, the app can positively impact the learner’s performance in the formal learning environment.
Conclusions
This app could be a great learning tool for organic chemistry students if the learning curve wasn’t as steep. While playing around with the app, it was sometimes frustrating to get the features to do what I wanted. Overall, with a little time devoted to learning the not quite so obvious menus, the app can be handy to those students who need a little extra help.
Resources
Notari, M. P., Hielscher, M., & King, M. (2016). Educational apps ontology. In D. Churchill, J. Lu, T. Chiu, & B. Fox (Eds.), Mobile learning design (pp. 83–96). Singapore: Springer.
Bransford, J., Stevens, R., Schwartz, D., Meltzoff, A., Pea, R., Roschelle, J., Vye, N., Kuhl, P., Bell, P., Barron, B., Reeves, B., & Sabelli, N. (2006). Learning theories and education: Toward a decay of synergy. In P. Alexander & P. Winne (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology (2nd ed., pp. 209–244). Erlbaum.
Image credits: http://www.kingdraw.cn/en/index.html
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