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Transitions
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Jon L. Holmes
University of WisconsinÐMadison, Madison, WI 53715-1116 |
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This issue is out of print. |
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Transition elements, transition points, transition states, allowed transitions... the study of chemistry frequently (always) involves the causes and effects of transition. Indeed, without transition, chemistry would not exist, or would at the very least be much less interesting. This also applies to life in general and to the Journal of Chemical Education and JCE Software in particular, which, in case you have not noticed are now undergoing a major transition. As we all know, transition can be difficult and stressful, especially transition to a higher energy state, which is what the Journal and JCE Software are trying to accomplish. One of the transitions that has already taken place is that of editor of the Journal from J. J. Lagowski to John W. Moore and of the editorial offices from Austin, TX to Madison, WI. To make space for the additional staff, equipment, and paper, the Journal offices were placed nearby the chemistry building in a house now known as Journal House (see figure). The editorial staff of JCE Software also moved into Journal House. We hope this consolidation of the Journal and JCE Software staff and operations will serve to better link the two in the minds of our readers. We also hope to reap the benefits of the greater variety of skills that a larger, consolidated staff working in close proximity to one another possesses. As part of the transition of editorship, a reorganization of the editorial staff has also been implemented. As all of the Journal staff are new, this reorganization was essentially confined to the JCE Software staff. One of the results of this reorganization is that as editor of JCE Software I am now writing this editorial (please bear with me). Elizabeth MooreÕs duties have been redefined to address the concerns of the Journal readership. Nancy Gettys continues to handle the software submissions and she now also does the page layout of the documentation. Distribution of JCE Software materials is still ably managed by Lin Morris and her team of student helpers. In addition to software customer support, Lin and her team now handle Journal queries as well via our toll-free 800 number. And to help in troubleshooting software problems both before and after publication, Eric Kolstad is our resident MS-DOS and Windows expert. Should you care to contact any one of us individually, I have listed our e-mail addresses below. The transition of editorship is not the only transition taking place that will impact upon JCE Software. The software industry is rapidly making a transition to the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). The education community has also embraced the Internet. JCE Software has had a presence on the Internet for three years and we are planning to greatly expand that presence with additional offerings. Featured among these offerings is a new JCE publication, JCE Internet, offering Web-based software in the form of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language, the language of the WWW) documents, VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) documents, Java applets (small applications written in the Java programming language and usually embedded in an HTML document and viewed with a Java-aware browser such as Netscape Navigator 3.0 or later), and any other current or as yet unforeseen applications of the WWW to chemistry education. I urge authors of such documents or programs to submit them to JCE Software or JCE Internet for possible publication. As you, both developers and users, make the transition to Internet-based instructional materials, we would like you to continue to look to JCE Software and JCE Internet as an outlet for your development efforts and as a source for computer-based instructional materials. But even as we make this transition to the latest technologies we are reminded that some valuable tools continue to be developed under the tried-and-true computing environments. As John MartinÕs final installment (or so we are led to believe) of his SIRs suite of lecture-aid programs featured in this issue attests, there are still some excellent instructional aids being developed for our MS-DOS series. Due to their less demanding computing requirements, SIRs and our other MS-DOS programs do not need cutting-edge computer systems to be used effectively. At the same time these programs can still be run under Windows and Windows 95 and benefit from these multitasking environments. As long as materials are being submitted that are suitable for publication and there is a demand for such materials, JCE Software will continue to publish them. As we enter this coming year of transition, we are looking at and evaluating all aspects of JCE publications. We greatly value your input. During this transitional period I would urge you as users and/or prospective authors of JCE Software to please contact us with your suggestions as to how we might make this publication more useful to you. Do you have an idea for a computer program that you think would aid the chemistry education community? Are there ways in which we could improve the documentation that accompanies our software? How do you feel about electronic distribution of JCE Software materials? Have you visited our home page on the WWW? If so, how might it be improved? Do you have suggestions for the types of columns, articles, or resources that you would like to see become a part of JCE Internet? If so, please let us know.
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Last Updated: April 26, 2001 Created: March 4, 1997 |
Created by: S. B. Mathews Comments to: jceonline@chem.wisc.edu |
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| © 1997 Division of Chemical Education, Inc., American Chemical Society. All rights reserved. | |