Those who are interested in the theme and materials covered in ACEN, but are unaware of the presence of its home page, will step into the page on their way of network search, or network "surfing", on his interest.
Introduction
Concept
Structure
Relationship with "Chemical Education in Asia-Pacific"
Prospect
In 1994, The Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ) issued a booklet "Chemical Education in Japan 2nd version" which introduces the various aspects of present situation of Japanese Chemical Education, with the leadership of Professor Yoshito Takeuchi, the Chief Editor. Although this work have had a favorable response from numerous foreign countries, it was gradually found that this is not enough to deepen the mutual understanding on international basis, in particular in Asian-Pacific region. This is because, for the above purpose, it is necessary that the information on current situation of chemical education in each country is available to one another.
Thus, CSJ has started a new project, that is, to issue "Chemical Education in Asia-Pacific" a booklet like the previous one which is planned to cover the current situation of chemical education in each country in Asian-Pacific region. Fortunately, the project was approved by The Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS) as part of its project in the field of chemical education: The Asian Chemical Education Network (ACEN), which came to be a joint project of FACS and CSJ. This is quite a fortunate for the coming issue, for not only the editors can officially request the FACS member countries to contribute the manuscript for the issue but the Network will be able to serve as a basic medium for continuing effort to provide the current information, to revise and volume up the materials in the issue "Chemical Education in Asia-Pacific".
Recently, the international computer network (internet) is rapidly developing, even in the field of chemistry. As far as I know, chemical societies of Australia, Korea, and China, as well as Japan already have their respective home pages on World-Wide Web (WWW), and the chemistry department of an institute in India is linked from an WWW index site on chemistry resources. In a year or so, many other countries will come to have their own home page, and increasing number of chemical educators in Asian-Pacific region will be able to access to the internet. These recent trends have soon suggested the staffs of the join project that such an network as ACEN will work most effectively on a computer based network, e.g., on WWW. I report here the outline of the first contribution for ACEN on WWW, that has just started in Japan.
The concept of ACEN on WWW is fundamentally based on the characteristics of internet as a communication medium, that is, real-time, open, bidirectional, and international. In addition it can be paper-saving and money-saving, compared with the conventional means of communication of printing and mailing newsletters or other materials.
(1) ACEN is an international human network, which is constructed on Internet, the international computer network, and which is maintained by, available for, and possessed of all the chemical educators throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
(2) ACEN is aimed at contributing the mutual advancement of chemical education in Asia-Pacific region, through exchanging information in chemical education of each country--curricula, materials, tips and know-how, research reports, problems faced, all that might be useful or advisable for those in other countries--and through communication of questions and answers and other kind of styles.
In addition to the character information, photographic or graphic information is available on WWW. Thus, the originally developed teaching materials or experimental tools, for instance, can be presented with pictures of the scene of pupils' use. The information difficult to describe with text sentences can be presented together with figures, tables, etc.
(3) ACEN itself will be linked from various WWW sites, i.e., index sites related to chemistry and chemical education (Figure 1).
Those who are interested in the theme and materials covered in ACEN, but are unaware of the presence of its home page, will step into the page on their way of network search, or network "surfing", on his interest.
(4) ACEN itself will be linked to other national or regional WWW sites, or information available through WWW in Asian-Pacific region, which are useful for chemical educators in this region.
The attendants of ACEN on WWW will have a chance to access to other WWW sites, that they have hitherto been unaware of, which cover the theme or materials of their interest (Figure 1).
At the beginning, the ACEN on WWW serves two different kinds of information, "database" and "bulletin board".
Database presents materials and data on chemical education in each country in Asian-Pacific region, which are compiled by the representative of each country so that rather official. At the beginning, it includes the materials in "Chemical Education in Japan, second version" and "Chemical Education in Asia-Pacific". The materials for the latter will gradually be summed up country by country until its completion in April 1997. After that, the correction of, and/or addition to, the materials will be made from time to time, to reflect the situations changing year by year. Other database will be welcome as far as it serves the enhancement of mutual understanding and development of chemical education in the region.
Bulletin board is a site for time-dependent announcements and relatively personal communication, introductions of topics, or articles on a specific theme. They are divided in Calendar, Plaza, and Address Book.
The most characteristic profiles of WWW is that not all the materials in the network should be collected up in a single host computer altogether. Instead, the contributor can keep them in his own computer, or in the one he can easily access to, as far as the computer is connected to the internet. Then, all he should do is to notice the address for the location of the materials he contributed, so that the network manager can make a linking to them from the relevant WWW home page. This means that it is quite easy for the contributor to add or revise the materials on the network--he does not have to send materials, or even notice of the alteration, to the manager and ask for a substitution. Thus, real-time distribution of "hot" materials can be achieved. This function will be increasingly useful as the computers available to chemical educators in the region increase and, consequently, the materials in ACEN increase in number and in size.
The completion of "Chemical Education in Asia-Pacific", the first product of this kind, however, will not be a goal of mutual understanding of the current situation of chemical education among Asian-Pacific countries, but only serve as a starting point toward the goal. In spite of the effort of the authors of each country, it would be too optimistic to expect that all the materials that meet the interest of attendants in other countries could be contained in the ca. twenty pages, which is allocated to each country in the issue. However, it is expected to provide the attendants with information such as
To meet the needs as exemplified above that would come from the readers and to make the issue "Chemical Education in Asia-Pacific" more fruitful for the mutual development of chemical education in Asia-Pacific, the presence of a medium for easy communication is indispensable between contributors and attendants. The ACEN, by showing the materials in the issue in its "Database" and, at the same place, by providing a medium of the mutual communication in "Plaza" of "Bulletin Board", is expected to meet the above needs effectively.
The internet is developing and enhancing day by day in a literal sense. In due course all chemical societies belonging to FACS will open its own home page, and a page for chemical education will also be opened as a part or independent home page. ACEN on WWW then will comprise an assembly of these home pages on chemical education (or its international relation part) linked altogether. ACEN on WWW will naturally be linked with the home pages of chemical education in countries or regions other than in Asia-Pacific. It will in the future serve as an important part of the international network on Chemical Education (Figure 2).
Figure
2 (Click for Original Figure)
To accelerate these current tides, it is necessary for the countries in Asian-Pacific region to develop a national and local computer network, as well as to provide the chemists and chemical educators in the region with the circumstance that enables them to access to the network developed. Proposals and supports by FACS and member societies for such an enterprise will play an important roll for the future development of ACEN.
Copyright 1996 by The Author
Asian-Pacific Chemical Education Network
A Project of Federation of Asian Chemical Societies and The Chemical
Society of Japan
Director yoshito@educ.info.kanagawa-u.ac.jp
Figure
1 (Click for original Figure)