[ Back to the previous menu ]

Summary

Foreword
1. ECTN members : in / ou
2. ECTN Management Committee meeting & Lund Meeting
3. CD-Rom version
4. Internet version
5. Chemistry Test Libraries
6. European "Umbrella" Association becomes ...
7. Dissemination Programme 2001 - Provisional
8. Question Mark NewsLetter ...
9. Jet Blue ...
10. What's coming next !

Foreword

this is the last NewsLetter of the year 2K before starting the New Millenium, the third one !

Coming back 12 months ago, we had a lot to do, and ... we've done a lot !! A brand new CDRom was released and new projects were launched in Krakow.

Our demo version of the Evaluation of Core Chemistry Test, so called "European Chemistry Test", is somehow our Marketing vector, our Commercial window, and believe me, it has a great effect.

Recently, I met the  new French Question Mark staff in Paris, and they just discovered what was really behind the client "ECTN/CPE Lyon". The client was in fact a big one (see below the short info on the QM NewsLetter from QM England/QM Nederlands). They were fascinated by what was achieved with the QM Author version (the old one), and was amazed by the number of languages produced. And I was really amazed to see how nice it looks on a very wide screen (22 inches, million of colors).

In order to keep this product at the top level, 2001 will be a "good year" to hit the road ;-)) for new resolutions ! we need to issue a revised version, an improved version with hopefully at least 4 new languages, some improvement of the installation procedure and an updated content for the general information. The Internet version will also be released in English first, early 2001, then other languages will follow all year long.

So guys, we will work together (again) next year, and I wish you good luck in advance, but before anything else, I wish all of you ...

Welcome to Prof R.F.C. Van Marteen who will replace Prof. B. Zwanenburg

Prof. B. Zwanenburg officially announced his retirement from the University and from the Network. We thank him for his collaboration to the Chemistry Network, and we wish him a pleasant and peacefull time.

A very successful meeting was held in Leeds (the ‘Home Town’ of Richard Whewell) last weekend. The main business of the meeting was to plan the activities for ECTN2 and to discuss the formation of an Association.

A number of important decisions were taken. A full set of minutes will be circulated later, but here is a resume of these decisions.

1. There was a unanimous agreement in principle that the ECTN should form an Association (non-profit making) to be registered in Belgium. This proposal will be put before the full ECTN membership at the plenary meeting in Lund. The statutes of this Association were discussed and proposed statutes will be circulated well before the Lund meeting. It is expected that membership of the ECTN Association will involve a subscription of about 350 Euro (per Institution).
2. There was unanimous agreement in principle that the ECTN Association should join the ‘Umbrella’ Association that is being created by the group of projects (up to 16, including chemistry) that were funded under the Socrates or Leonardo programmes to create computer-based tests. The subscription for the first year will be 2000 Euro.
3. The chemistry tests require input from members. It was agreed that one person should be appointed to be the contact person for each of the languages concerned for the tests, and that this person should be responsible for ensuring that necessary text and question translations are carried out, checked, and sent to Pascal Mimero.
4. For test certification, Richard Whewell and Tony Smith had made a presentation to the ECCC (European Community Chemistry Council) who had shown great interest in collaborating. Richard and Tony will make further contact with the national Chemical Societies (the RSC and the SFC, respectively) to take matters further.
5. The Plenary Meeting in Lund will take place on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 27 ? 29 April, 2001. Working group meetings will be held on Thursday 26 April ? for working group members only. A preliminary programme was agreed:

PROPOSED TIMETABLE FOR PLENARY MEETING IN LUND, SWEDEN, 26 ? 29 April, 2001

• Thursday, 26 April

Afternoon

Working Group Meetings

• Friday, 27 April

Morning

A. Working Group Meetings
B. Meeting for Objective 1 Group leaders

LUNCH

14.00 - 16.00

ECTN2 General Business (1)

16.15 - 18.15

A. Green Chemistry Workshop
B. Food Chemistry Workshop
C. Teaching and Learning for the FutureWorkshop

DINNER

• Saturday, 28 April

9.00 - 11.00

D. Multimedia in Chemistry Learning Workshop
E. Image of Chemistry Workshop
F. Chemistry and the Bologna Declaration Workshop

11.15 - 12.15

H. Future Activities (Plenary Session)

12.15 - 13.15

Elections for Association Administrative Council

LUNCH

14.30 - 17.30

ECEN Meeting (TASSEP, EU-Canada)

17.45 - 18.45

ECTN General Business

DINNER

• Sunday, 29 April

09.00 - 10.00 Workshop Outcomes (A - B - C)

10.00 - 11.00 Workshop Outcomes (D - E - F)

11.00 - 11.15 Conclusion

Notes on proposed timetable.

1. The Working group meetings start on the Thursday afternoon so that group members can probably arrive on Thursday ? although some people may need to arrive on Wednesday.
2. There is a second working group session on Friday morning since, for many groups, this will be the only group meeting they have during the year. They will have time to prepare for the workshops to take place on Friday and Saturday.
3. The plenary meeting itself starts on Friday afternoon with a general session. I envisage this session to include a presentation of recent activities (including 10 minutes each for the Image and Teaching and Learning working groups), and a discussion of the ECTN Association. If agreement is reached, election of the provisional Administrative Council will need to take place, on Saturday afternoon.
4. Papers should be circulated before the meeting to provide abstracts of recent activities, and reminders of the themes of the new working groups.
5. Three parallel workshops are necessary if we are to get all activities into the time available. The workshops should be used to discuss the outcomes of the group meetings, to draw up a workplan for the period May ? October, assign tasks, and plan for the following year.
6. Reporting of workshop outcomes ? each workshop will have about 20 minutes (10 minutes presentation, 10 minutes discussion).

** Finance for the Lund Meeting. IMPORTANT

There will not be sufficient funds available to cover the cost of all participants to the Plenary Meeting. It was agreed that ECTN will pay the accommodation and subsistence costs of all members participating in the meeting, but that all members will need to cover their own travel costs. This change in the usual funding arrangements is necessary since their are no other projects running at the moment (such as Objective 1 or ECEN Curriculum Development) that can be used to co-fund meeting participation as in the past.

An application form for the Lund meeting will be circulated in January.

The working groups in operation during this funding year are as follows:

• Green and Sustainable Chemistry (Leader: George Francis, Bergen, NO). This group will meet in Montpellier, FR at the end of February, and also at the Lund meeting.
• Multimedia in Chemistry Learning (Leader: Antonio Lagana, Perugia, IT). This group will meet on the day before the Lund meeting.
• Food Chemistry (Leader: Ivonne Delgadillo, Aveiro, PT). This group will met in Aveiro in February or March, and at the Lund meeting.
• The Image of Chemistry (Leader: Hagga Schmalz, Koln, DE). This group will also meet at the Lund meeting.
• Teaching, Learning, and Assessment for the Future (Leader: Terry Mitchell, Dortmund, DE). This group will meet at the Lund meeting.
• Chemistry and the Bologna Declaration (Leader: Paolo Todesco; Bologna, IT). This group will meet at the Lund meeting.
• Evaluation off Core Chemistry ? these groups will continue their work on the computer-based tests, and work to develop tests at Level 4 in Organic Chemistry will be started.

>>>>  Any ECTN member wishing to participate in these working groups should contact the group leader.

Thanks to ...
Markus Enders who noticed a couple of mistakes in the German Demo version and suggest to send the required corrections.
Kalina Mutafchieva will provide the Bulgarian version of the Physical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry and Organic Chemistry tests.
Marek Frankowicz and Henryk Koroniak would double checked the Polish version of the demo tests.
George Francis will double check the Norwegian version.
Jean-Claude Kaell kindly confirmed his support to the Objective 1 adventure for both German and French version !

Also thanks to the Objective 1 Group Leaders and those not listed here who confirmed to me directly their own support for future development.

NEW, NEW, NEW, ...

Andrei Tchougreef (Moscow, RU) : we met at the EUCO-CC3 Conference last september in Budapest, and after checking our CDRom, he wrote back and confirm his intention to provide the full Russian translation of the CDRom - terms and conditions should be discussed now - but translations could start early 2001. He also offer to double check the actual Organic test available in Russian.

All together and time permitted, the next brand new release of the CDRom would probably at least 3 new languages :
- Hungarian / full version received
- Slovenian / full version under work
- Bulgarian / 3 tests out of 6 to be done
- Russian / probably full version - under consideration
- Lithuanian / was suggested in Krakow

The draft release of the ECT website still need a lot of correction, it is why I didn't publish the address right now ! I know ! too bad !

No tests are online right now, but the English version of tests (version 3.5.1. : Uni1, Uni2, Anal, Inor, Orga, Phys, Disc) is almost ready to be published under Perception format (by January 2001) and will be accessible from the ECT website. I'll let you know as soon as it will be released and published on the Internet.

Check this item in the next NewsLetter / January 2001.

Marek Frankowicz will provide the translation of the Physical Chemistry Libraries into Polish. Thanks to him.

Other volunteers to translate the chemistry test libraries into their own language are welcome to contact Pascal Mimero who can supply the necessary files.

Too bad for your curiosity ... you will know it later only !! next Millenium ...
Some delays occurs regarding the registration and administrative side - still not ready yet.
This is always accessible at : http://www.cpe.fr/ceetok/

Thanks to George Francis for his contribution, providing the Norwegian translation of the ECT webpage.
As required by Pavel Drasar, the Czech version was polish from keyboard compatibility mispelling ...

7. Dissemination Programme 2001 - Provisional

20th ICDE - Düsseldorf (Germany) ; April 1-5, 2001
20th World Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education

Presenters : Pascal Mimero & Anthony Smith
Abstract acceptedfor presentation.

From the recent online December monthly NewsLetter :

***********************************************************
Welcome to Question Mark Infocenter, the monthly newsletter on
computerized testing, assessment and needs analysis.
***********************************************************
PERCEPTION CROSSES INTERNATIONAL BORDERS
The European Chemistry Thematic Network (ECTN) uses Question
Mark for a large-scale European project on the evaluation of core
competencies in chemistry. ECTN consists of 90 chemistry departments
at universities and colleges in 28 European countries.
http://www.questionmark.com/casestudies/ectn_12042000.htm
***********************************************************

If you travel North America, or if you plan to travel, try http://www.jetblue.com either from your European office or from home.
One friend of mind from NJ recommended it to me, I tried it last September. I booked US national flights via Internet from France, and it works, I've got the requested sit and payed a really bargained price.

Since January 2000, this brand new company called "Jet Blue" operates routes from NYC/JFK (Terminal 6 - East wing) to a couple of North/South -East cost and Middle West and West cost USA destinations with a brand new fleet of Airbus A320.

    - attractive price all taxes included (OW or RT) even high seasonal period.
    - one single class,
    - free individual Direct-TV in front of you,
    - no meal on short road but you can take your own - don't know about the long one !,
    - one non alcoholic beverage free, otherwise take cash with you,
    - 2 carry-on hand luggage,
    - dynamic cabin crew, staff and stewards.

Choose and check available sits online (plane map), book it and pay it by any type of Credit cards. After validation, confirmation email will be send to you as a proof of registration. You will be really charged once you register with your e-ticket to the boarding desk at the airport. Maxi 10 minutes prior departure for not loosing your reservation.

source : image imported from the www.JetBlue.com website
NY-NY : NYC to Buffalo / Rochester / Burlington ; NY-FL : NYC to Orlando / West Palm Beach / Ft Lauderdale / Tampa / ft Myers
NY-West states : NYC - Salt Lake City / Oakland / Ontario (CA)

Enjoy your trip ... ;-))

[ Back to the previous menu ]