On-line Chemical Education Meeting May Be Harbinger of the Future

Abstract

An on-line chemistry conference to be held this summer could be the forerunner of a new form of meeting that uses electronic mail (e-mail) instead of airplanes to foster interaction among scientists. The conference, called Applications of Technology in Teaching Chemistry, is being sponsored by the American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Education's Committee on Computers in Chemical Education. The idea for the conference was originally proposed by chemistry professor Thomas C. O'Haver of the University of Maryland, College Park. The meeting is being co-organized by O'Haver and Donald Rosenthal, chairman of the Committee on Computers in Chemical Education and emeritus chemistry professor at Clarkson University, Potsdam, N.Y. The conference is the first on-line meeting to be organized by the Division of Chemical Education and is viewed as an experiment, but the hope is that computer conferencing will become a permanent part of the division's program. We have not, nor has anyone else, had much ...