Microsymposia on the contemporary topic of Computing and Teaching

Some key issues regarding different models for delivery of the curriculum,

the pace of introducing the new technologies, the role of government in delivering mass education and the pressures on institutions in responding to the novel methods of education were raised during the talks

Kelly, Jim

English

Microsymposia on the contemporary topic of Computing and Teaching\ud
Some key issues regarding different models for delivery of the curriculum,\ud
the pace of introducing the new technologies, the role of government in delivering mass education and the pressures on institutions in responding to the novel methods of education were raised during the talks

Name not available

  Birkbeck ePrints: an open access repository of the research output of Birkbeck College  http://eprints.bbk.ac.uk   Kelly, J. (2001) Computing and teaching microsymposia at ECM [European Crystallographic Meeting 20, Krakow, August 2001]. Crystallography News 79: 26-27.  This is an exact copy of a paper published in Crystallography News (ISSN 1467-2790). Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any component of this work in other works, must be obtained from the copyright holder.  Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons downloading this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by copyright. This document or any part thereof may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.   Citation for this copy: Kelly, J. (2001) Computing and teaching microsymposia ECM [European Crystallographic Meeting 20, Krakow, August 2001]. London: Birkbeck ePrints. Available at: http://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/archive/00000385   Citation as published:  Kelly, J. (2001) Computing and teaching microsymposia ECM [European Crystallographic Meeting 20, Krakow, August 2001]. Crystallography News 79: 26-27.    http://eprints.bbk.ac.uk Contact Birkbeck ePrints at lib-eprints@bbk.ac.uk EuropeanCrystallographic MeetingECM20 Kraków, Poland -Meeting Report25th-31st August 2001CCDC Poster Prize winners atECM20The CCDC poster prizewinners atECM20 were:L. Dobrzycki (Warsaw University,Poland).Structure of YAG crystalssubstituted with Erbium andYtterbium.G. Paliwoda (JagiellonianUniversity, Krakow).Mutual recognition betweendiastereoisomers, quinine andquinidine, in the solid state.M.U. Schmidt (Clariant GmbH) Ternary mixed crystalC22H12Cl2N6O4/C23H14Cl2N6O4/C24H16Cl2N6O4:Structure solved by crystalstructure predictions and X-ray powder diffractionThe Prizes - an amethyst geodeand $250 to each winner - werepresented by CCDC ScientificDirector, Dr Frank Allen, at theClosing Ceremony on31 August 2001.The CCDC Prize Committeecomprised:Gautam R, Desiraju (Hyderabad, India)Robert O. Gould (Edinburgh, Scotland)Mariusz Jaskolski (Poznan, Poland and ECAExecutive Committee)Paul T. Beurskens (Nijmegen, The Netherlands andECA Executive Committee).Computing and TeachingMicrosymposia at ECMThe ancient JagiellonianUniversity (founded in 1364) ofthe splendid architectural city ofKraków, was the host of one ofthe contrasting final morningMicrosymposia on thecontemporary topic ofComputing and Teaching. Sixspeakers delighted the audiencewith a wide range of topics onusing the Internet for distancelearning, virtual courses incrystallography and a number ofdifferent models for delivery ofthe curriculum. Some key issuesregarding the pace ofintroducing the newtechnologies, the role ofgovernment in delivering masseducation and the pressures oninstitutions in responding to thenovel methods of education wereraised during the talks.Y. Epelboin (CNRS, Paris) [1] inthe opening address asked,"What can we learn from actualexperience?" and compared theUS experience with the Europeanparadigm. He projected that theworld education market [2] by2005 would be worth anestimated 90 billion US dollars.Distance learning would open upthe accessibility to virtualdocuments and librariesfacilitating politicians to containthe budget for education.However, the case was arguedthat the rich diverse tapestry oflanguage and traditions that isEuropean culture could not soeasily be swayed by an economicmodel. Co-operation via Brusselswould ensure that the"Revolution would go marchingon..." was the idiosyncratic Gallicrally.At the heart of G. Chapuis' talk(Lausanne, Switzerland) was the"nuts and bolts" of implementinginteractive web applications ofJava applets to providesimulation of some keycrystallographic concepts. Helisted the ingredients for a virtualcourse in crystallographyconcentrating on the tools forsimulation and provided anumber of real timedemonstrations of the Ewaldsphere, Laue pattern diagramsand Fourier transforms. Thedidactic road is long to acomplete course on the Internetalthough within a Javaenvironment using a webbrowser simulations can beperformed, directly independentof the computer platform beingused. This time the baton waspassed on to the IUCr to promoteand establish structured learningmodules for potentialcrystallography students. C. Sansom (Birkbeck, London)described at length the Masterslevel distance learning courses inStructural Biology offered byBirkbeck College since 1996. Shegave an overview profile of theEuropean Crystallographic Meeting December 200126CCDC Prize presentation to L. Dobrzycki(Warsaw University, Poland)European Crystallography Meeting December 200127average student taking thecourse as mature withdemanding professional careersquipping "that there were notypical students". Thecommunication links betweenstudents and teachers weremaintained using a purpose builtInternet chat room or MUD forshort (multi-user Dimension).Much of the material is written insimple HTML which can be run ona low specification computer,course material being madeavailable at regular intervalsthroughout the year. It wasstressed that fees were kept lowto encourage wide studentparticipation in the Advancedcertificate on the Principles ofProtein Structure (PPS) [4].The first of two talks on powderdiffraction commenced with A. Le Bail (Université du Maine,France) who challenged theaudience to think " Where is allthe knowledge." and remindedus that distance learning was inits centenary. The dangers ofonline education are well-established [5] with theautomation of Higher Educationlikened to creating "Digitaldiploma mills" as the pervasivenew information technologiesadvance. The provision of apowder diffraction course wasinspired by the Birkbeck modeland the speaker emphasised thedeliberation in choosing betweena synchronous and asynchronousmode of learning. The coursematerial with pedagogic exercisesis available on StructureDetermination by PowderDiffractometry (SDPD) [6] and canbe viewed on the web. Cautionwas advised that expert systemscould kill the interest of deeplearning and that an explosion ofsoftware diversity could pose anightmare for student andteacher alike. An anachronistictalk on CrystallographicAutostereograms was given by A. Katrusiak (Poznan, Poland)using handouts for the audienceto practice on. The speakerpresented a clear reminder of theoptics of the eye and its ability toperceive perspective by binocularvision. An interesting talk thatprompted a member of theaudience, R. Shirley (Surrey,England), to remark thatconfusion over the termstereogram could be avoided if itreferred only to that normallyused in stereographic projection.Returning to the topic of powderdiffraction on the Internet J. Cockcroft (Birkbeck, London)stressed again the need for life-long learning and the proudtradition that Birkbeck hasmaintained in teaching during its178-year history. Thecompatibility of the PowderDiffraction on the Web course [7]with both Netscape and InternetExplorer 3 was mentioned as wellas being Java/Java script free. Asit is easy "to get lost inhyperspace" the material makesextensive use of coursenavigation buttons on the webpages. With such an undertakinga priori knowledge cannot beassumed, but full use of colour ismade in pictures andphotographs contained in theHTML documents. Awareness ofcopyright is also an issue. Thematerial itself is organised intothree areas; experimentalmethods covering basiccrystallography, diffraction andsymmetry, data analysis coveringboth quantitative & qualitativeaspects and a project on Rietveldrefinement. On the topic ofprogramming options it wasrevealed that the space groupdiagrams used in the course werewritten in Fortran code, a spin offbeing a commercially availableCD-ROM. The debate overinteractive versus downloadablesoftware was touched uponagain. Finally the matter ofassignments was mooted andtheir role in good housekeepingrecorded. They act as an aid tolearning, are complementary tothe course material and providemodel answers and feedback tothe students in their distancelearning environment away fromthe more traditional face to faceapproach that is beingchallenged more and more in the21st Century.References[1] http://www.lmcp.jussieu.fr/~epelboin[2] http://www.wemex.com[3] Chapuis G. & Hardaker W., J. Appl.Cryst. (1999) 32, 1164-1168[4] http://www.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/pps/index.html[5] Noble D. -http://communication.ucsd.edu/dl[6] http://sdpd.univ-lemans.fr/course/index.html[7] http://pd.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/pd/welcome.htmBursary ReportJim KellyIndustrial Materials GroupSchool of CrystallographyBirkbeck College

Computing and teaching microsymposia at ECM [European Crystallographic Meeting 20, Krakow, August 2001]

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