DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b01038

Summary
This review aims to analyze the potential of new technologies in the area of green chemistry didactics. The authors stress that, in order to assist all nations in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, it is essential and urgent to raise awareness and call attention to how to innovate and energize information and communication technology (ICTs).
The most frequently used innovative didactic tools in green chemistry teaching, which include e-learning platforms, web-based social media tools, virtual worlds on screens or in cave automatic virtual environments (CAVEs), and machinima videos recorded in virtual worlds, are analyzed and discussed. The authors provide examples of new technologies and mini-scenarios used in green chemistry education, which support the goals of sustainable development. The future thinking about green chemistry teaching should be complex and not only involve the recognition and use of digital tools but also develop a specific approach to instructional design. Moreover, in the context of systems thinking and sustainability, raising awareness among educators and policymakers about asymmetry in the use of innovative didactic tools is necessary, which may cause barriers in knowledge dissemination and distribution.
The innovative didactic tools employed in green chemistry teaching can be included in three categories which are reviewed in this article: e-learning or mlearning flat platforms, which can be integrated with social media, or websites; virtual worlds (3D platforms) with fully immersive devices and intelligent accessories; and machinima. The authors refer to specific examples and they also discuss their advantages:
• Platforms help teachers to organize a learning space, where they can create opportunities for social learning and design engaging activities. E-learning platforms can support pedagogy of complexity (a pedagogy of the learning community) in a situation where all of the participants contribute to an organically growing curriculum over their course of study.
• Virtual worlds create more possibilities in the field of physicochemical simulations (e.g., decomposition of radioactive materials after a nuclear power plant incident, modeling of concentrated toxic gas from a container during an accident, propagation of a shockwave after an explosion of volatile materials) as they enable the student to visualize properties of matter in relation to artifacts in the real world. A virtual world is also an excellent environment in which to conduct research on social behavior in the field of green chemistry.
• Two important features of machinima that make it very useful are the low production costs and the possibility to present situations which are difficult to capture in real conditions.

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
This paper deals with system thinking and sustainability. To demonstrate the potential of innovative didactic tools, examples of mini scenarios for the development of chemistry lessons are provided, and these scenarios promote the sustainability concept and systems thinking. The authors conclude that the pursuit of sustainability goals in chemistry education should involve extended thinking about instructional design and asymmetries in technology use, as well as incorporate green teaching into the principles of green chemistry.

Point of Strength
The point of strength of this review is the report of many innovative didactic ICT tools that apply in green chemistry education as well as the proposed scenarios.