(Appendix)
Masato M. Ito
Faculty of Engineering, Soka University, Hachioji, Tokyo 192,
Japan
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The Asian-Pacific Chemical Education Network (ACEN) on WWW
Recently, the international computer network (Internet) is rapidly developing, even in the field of chemistry. As far as I know in Asian-Pacific region, chemical societies or institutes of Australia, China, Hong Kong, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan, as well as Japan seems to have their respective home pages on World-Wide Web (WWW), suggesting that increasing number of chemical educators in Asian-Pacific region is able to access to the Internet.
The Asian-Pacific Chemical Education Network (ACEN) was authorized by the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS) in 1995 to be one of its projects, as a result of the effort of an Australian forerunner, Prof. David Clift, and his colleagues.1 As a director for the project was nominated Prof. Yoshito Takeuchi, who is also an editor of this particular issue "Chemical Education in Asia-Pacific". He soon noticed that ACEN will be best founded and managed on the Internet , in particular, on WWW.
The ACEN on WWW started in July 1996,2 with a WWW version of "Chemical Education in Japan 2nd Version",3 the Japanese precedent of this issue. Thereafter, full papers contributed to the symposium in the 14th ICCE "Is There a Unique Asian Chemical Education?"4 was added to its "Database" page, and a unique but common problem on language in chemical education has been proposed in its "Plaza" page.5 In addition, Taiwan chemists seem to have their own WWW home page on chemical education, which will be linked from the "WWW sites" page in due course.
The first international fruit of ACEN, of course, should be a WWW version of this issue "Chemical Education in Asia-Pacific".
"Chemical Education in Asia-Pacific" and WWW
The whole manuscript of this issue is accessible at the "Database" page of the ACEN through the Internet WWW. It is divided in a society (institute) by society (institute) manner into separate files, so that the reader can easily access to the article of his choice. And binary version of each file is compiled by the Microsoft Rich Text Format (RTF) and is open for getting through Anonymous FTP, so that one can read and print with a recent version of Microsoft Word, or other RTF-treatable word processors, irrespective of his personal computer, Windows machine or Mac.
In addition, the WWW version may be more informative than the corresponding issue.
Although authors of some societies kindly contributed much more materials than expected, such as detailed Curricula, Course of Study, sample Examinations, or numerous sheets of figures, which were far diverted from the "guideline for authors" and/or far exceeded the pages allotted to each article. In such a case, the editors were regretful, because they might be useful for readers in other countries, but had to cut or abstract some of the materials, in order to keep balance in conformity and quantity among the articles, as well as to save pages to meet the limited publication cost.
In the WWW version, however, the situation is quite different. Firstly, the cost required to include the extra materials in appropriate pages is negligible. Consequently, almost all the materials contributed from the authors will be presented on WWW. Whether the reader accesses to the materials only depends on his needs. Secondly, revision is much more easier than the book version. Addition of or correction to the materials can be made simply by exchanging the corresponding files of html format with the revised ones. Finally, in the future, when each society has its own home page on WWW, in which page on chemical education is included, all the pages will be linked with one another to compose the "Chemical Education in Asia-Pacific" in its literal sense.
However, this is not the goal of the WWW version.
It is not reasonable that every material that meets the wide-range interest of all the readers in other countries could be contained in the ten to twenty page articles. However, it is expected to provide them with information, such as
(1) finding a problem common to more than one country, e.g., brain drain or multilingual issue, which would start an international collaboration to overcome it,
(2) presence of a potential hint to a problem that many countries are faced which might be found in materials in other countries, and it would start the query and answer stile communication, or
(3) tips and know-hows that are available over the countries, e.g., materials for environmental education, which would call for further information.
To meet the needs as exemplified above that would come from the readers, the presence of an easily-accessible medium for communication is indispensable among authors and readers all over the countries. The ACEN, showing the materials of this issue in its "Database" page and, at the same place, by providing a medium for the mutual communication in the "Plaza" section of the "Bulletin Board" page, is expected to meet the above needs effectively, resulting in the mutual development of chemical education in Asian-Pacific region.
The completion of the issue "Chemical Education in Asia-Pacific", as well as its WWW version, is just a starting point toward the goal.
Prospect: The World-wide Chemical Education Network
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 of, or an 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 on chemical education in countries or regions other than in Asia-Pacific. It will in the future serve as an important part of the World-wide network on Chemical Education, which would be best organized and managed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) or, in particular, its Committee on Teaching of Chemistry (CTC).
The Asian-Pacific Chemical Education Network: URL = http://www.t.soka.ac.jp/chem/ACEN/
Acknowledgment
The author expresses his deep and hearty gratitude to Miss Tamami Konno for converting the whole manuscript of this issue, in addition to that of "Chemical Education in Japan 2nd Version", into html format for presentation on WWW. Without her devotion and sincere work, the ACEN would still be much less fruitful, or even might not yet be in existence.
He also thanks The Scientific Computer Center, Soka University, for kindly providing the ACEN with the resources and facilities on its computers.
References
1. D. Clift, "Asia-Pacific Network of Chemical Educators", FACS Newsletter, 1995 No. 2, pp. 14-15.
2. M. M. Ito, "A Network for Chemical Educators in the Asia-Pacific Region on World-Wide Web", Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Chemical Education, 118-119 (1996); Full paper at URL= http://www.t.soka.ac.jp/chem/ACEN/14ICCE/Itoma.html
3. Y. Takeuchi et al. ed, "Chemical Education in Japan 2nd Version", The Chemical Society of Japan (1994).
4. Y. Takeuchi, "Is there a Unique Asian Chemical Education?", Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Chemical Education, 117-119 (1996).
5. S. Sotheeswaran , "Transliteration and Translation in Chemistry",
URL = http://www.t.soka.ac.jp/chem/ACEN/forum1/forum1.html
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