ANNOUNCEMENT -- online conference -- starts FRIDAY, MAY 5 Spring 2006 CONFCHEM Conference on Web-Based Applications for Chemical Education The ACS Division of Chemical Education's Committee on Computers in Chemical Education will be hosting the Spring 2006 CONFCHEM online conference, "Web-Based Applications for Chemical Education," from May 5 to June 30 (http://www.ched-ccce.org/confchem/2006/b). This is a free online conference with seventeen papers being presented during eight week-long sessions. Each sessions will start on a Friday with registered subscribers submitting questions to authors through the weekend. The following Monday the authors will respond, and the discussion list will be open through Thursday for general discussion of that week's papers. You do not need to be registered to access the papers, but if you wish to view or participate in the discussion sessions you will need to subscribe to the list. Subscribe/Unsubscribe instructions may be found at http://www.ched-ccce.org/confchem/instructions.html. You are welcome to subscribe to the entire conference or to subscribe at any time after the beginning of the conference in order to participate only in those specific sessions that are of direct interest to you. Many of the authors’ online papers will provide links to their actual web sites (with passwords when needed), providing the opportunity to explore a site while interacting with the author directly. This combined with the discussion sessions should give this conference a workshop type atmosphere. If you are unfamiliar with CONFCHEM, we encourage you to subscribe to the discussion sessions even if you do not participate in the discussions. (You can “cancel” your subscription at any time.) Almost all of the subscribers will be chemical educators, and many will be educators who are also developers of other web-based applications. As the presenters are seeking input on their work, the ensuing discussions by subscribers could bring out important facets of the papers that you will miss if you are not subscribed to the discussion list. After the conference, all papers and discussions will be placed in the Archives on the CCCE CONFCHEM web site (http://www.ched-ccce.org/confchem). If you have any questions, please feel free to contact one of the conference organizers listed below: Bob Belford (rebelford@ualr.edu) Bob Hanson (hansonr@stolaf.edu)