A Change in the 21st Century: Realizing the Effect of Replacing Actual Laboratories with Virtual Laboratories

Abstract

Science played an important role in our daily lives, in fact it has been a part of our curriculum and educational system. Part of it is developing scientific knowledge and science process skills through different activities conducted in the laboratory. As the years goes by, the performing of tasks in laboratories are lessened. With all the trends and improvements of technology nowadays, educational tools and technology has also improved and dominates our classroom and one of which is the usage of virtual laboratories. This journal aimed to showcase the effect of replacing actual laboratories with virtual laboratories. The author studied the results and arguments of some researchers about the usage of actual and virtual laboratories. The author concluded that choosing virtual laboratory to replace actual laboratory would be a great picture of a chaotic scenario for science education that is always aimed to instill scientific literacy to each and every student. Virtual laboratory can't replace the learning that actual laboratory can cater but it will help improve and cure misconceptions, it can be an alternative of supportive learning environment but can't replace actual laboratory.