To the National Delegates of Commission 2
To the Academic Members of FIG
To Corresponding Members
I want to wish you all good for the year we started already some time ago. I hope that everybody has at least a short break between the terms. I believe that for most of us the new teaching period is just starting and we are busy I making new plans. In education we have a rapid development just going on, especially in teaching and learning methods. Everybody seems to talk about virtual academies and interactive teaching. Also in Commission 2 we have activities to that direction.
In this newsletter you will find the following topics dealt with: Seoul PC and Working week, Seminar on Virtual Academy organized by Commission 2 and the report from Rosario symposium organized by the vice chair Pedro Cavero.
May 6.-11.2001
The Commissions and the Organizing Committee for WW 2001, after extensive elaborations, have assembled a program consisting over 150 papers into two plenary sessions and more than 30 technical sessions and workshops. Commission 2 has three technical Sessions on Virtual Academy and Surveying Curricula.
In addition to technical and business sessions and meetings Working week seems to offer a lot of things to see and enjoy. I citate the letter of the FIG President, who already visited Seoul : "An evening at traditional Korea House, a day trip to a Korean folk village or a post-conference tour to Chejudo Island, among other possibilities, will afford many wonderful memories of this exotic country. "
The technical and administrative programmes for Seoul are now almost finalised. The programme is now posted on the FIG web site for the public (see Appendix 1)
http://www.ddl.org/figtree/pub/proceedings/korea/programme.htm
The programme for administrative meetings is available at:
http://www.ddl.org/figtree/pub/proceedings/korea/admin-programme.htm
Authors have already received more detailed information. Please, remember that the full papers as well as the two page extended abstracts are expected before February the 28th. (see Appendix 2)
We will, of course have a Commission meeting in Seoul. One main topic for discussions is how we could activate the use of SEDB (Surveying Educational Data Base). A huge amount of work has been done for the data base, updating is continuous work - but how we could utilize the SEDB best in the future? Also we should start preparing Washington Congress and our reports from WG:s. So, I wish very much that as many delegates as possible would participate in Commission meeting on Monday, the 7th of May at 15.30 in the Magnolia hall.
Finland, Otaniemi, 5.-8.June, 2001
Working group on Virtual Academy has prepared a seminar which will take place in Helsinki next June. In this letter you will find a brochure and invitation to the seminar. Professor Henrik Haggren together with Mrs. Marjaana Laurema are organizing the seminar. The seminar will be in two parts: the first part is actually a workshop where a smaller amount of people are intensively working on the theme - anybody having a virtual academy application is invited to demonstrate it during this two day workshop. The latter part is a seminar for a bigger audience and for the seminar we already have some invited papers but the program is still "open" - so if you are interested to give a presentation, please contact us. And finally, we invite everybody to join the seminar!
18.-20. October, 2000
A Commission seminar was organized in South America, Argentina, last October. The seminar was a success and opens new possibilities for FIG in the Latin America. Many thanks for prof. Pedro Cavero for organizing this with the Argentinan colleagues! Appendix 3 contains the report of vice president of Commission 2, Pedro Cavero.
Everybody is now concentrating on Seoul Working Week. Let us hope that it will be a good week with lots of communication. I wish everyone of you warmly welcome to Seoul and I am sure the local organizers will do their best in organizing a memorable time for us.
I wish to see as many of you as possible in Seoul.
With my best regards
Kirsi Virrantaus