Research Interests V

IT in Teaching

Next to Organometallic Chemistry I also have a strong interest in the use of IT in teaching.

Teaching is a very important part in chemistry as it means to pass on the knowledge to the next generation of chemists. Over the years the way of doing that has changed, from blackboards and overhead-slides to internet and intranet devices.
The use of modern Information Technology makes the transfere of knowledge much easier; with interactive websites the student has got the chance to learn in a bi-directional way as opposed to traditional, one-directional learning.

Take the open source JMol Plugin as an example. The use of the plugin enables the understanding of complex molecular structures like host-guest interactions, dendrimers and the relationship between structure and NMR signals.
Traditional 2 dimensional drawings make it difficult to comprehend for example host-guest interaction. Interactive 3 dimensional models on the other hand can be used to visualise complex systems in an easier, much more native way.
The following examples are choosen to demonstrate this.

Host-Guest interaction: Coffein in Host (courtesy of Prof. Dr. C. Schalley, Free University Berlin).
Dendrimer (courtesy of Prof. Dr. C. Schalley, Free University Berlin).
NMR and structure: Relationship between structure and NMR data (taken from my talk section).
NBO-Analysis Electronic investigation of an Iron-Pincer complex (taken from my publication DOI: 10.1002/chem.200900027).

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last changed: 1.1.2019