Tuesday, July 15, 2003

MIT OCW Update Here's the latest issue of the OpenCourseWare Update from MIT. _____ The MIT OpenCourseWare Update: July 2003 A Monthly E-mail Newsletter for Users and Friends of MIT OpenCourseWare ---------------------------------------------------------------- The July 2003 MIT OpenCourseWare Update Contains: 1. New Courses Bring Total to 84 2. How Are You Using MIT OCW? 3. Digging Deeper: Course 6.001 4. A Frequently Asked Question 5. Comments 1. New Courses Bring Total to 84 ---------------------------------------------------------------- The official launch of MIT OpenCourseWare, with the publication of approximately 500 courses, will take place in September 2003. However, during the months of July, August, and September, we will employ a "rolling" publication schedule, releasing batches of new courses to the public site on a weekly basis. There have been three such batch releases thus far, and the MIT OCW Web site now offers the course materials from 84 MIT subjects - including 34 new additions to the original 50 subjects of the MIT OCW pilot. These new courses include: Media Arts and Sciences (link to department home page) Course MAS.964 - Common Sense Reasoning to Interactive Applications Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Course 6.001 - Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs Course 6.041 - Probabilistic Systems Analysis and Applied Probability Course 6.231 - Dynamic Programming and Stochastic Control Course 6.251J - Introduction to Mathematical Programming Course 6.252J - Non-Linear Programming Course 6.263J - Data Communication Networks Course 6.763 - Applied Superconductivity Course 6.821 - Programming Languages Course 6.838 - Algorithms for Computer Animation Physics Course 8.324 - Quantum Field Theory II Brain and Cognitive Sciences Course 9.00P - Introduction to Psychology (Professor Steven Pinker) Course 9.00W - Introduction to Psychology (Professor Jeremy Wolfe) Course 9.01 - Neuroscience and Behavior Course 9.02 - Brain Laboratory Course 9.03 - Neural Basis of Learning and Memory Course 9.081 - Human Memory and Learning Course 9.14 - Structure and Development of the Mammalian Brain Course 9.15 - Biochemistry and Pharmacology of Synaptic Transmission Course 9.16 - Cellular Neurophysiology Course 9.19J - Cognitive and Behavioral Genetics Course 9.35 - Sensation and Perception Course 9.357 - Special Topics in Vision Course 9.59J - Psycholinguistics Course 9.591J - Language Processing Course 9.74 - Foundations of Human Memory and Learning Urban Studies and Planning Course 11.122 - Environment and Society Course 11.124 - Introduction to Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Science Course 11.204 - Planning, Communications, and Digital Media Course 11.431J - Real Estate Finance and Investment Sloan School of Management Course 15.224 - Global Markets, National Politics, and the Competitive Advantage of Firms Course 15.351 - Managing the Innovation Process Course 15.812 - Marketing Management Course 15.835 - Entrepreneurial Management For a complete list of all MIT OCW courses, visit our complete course list. Look for notice of new courses in subsequent issues of "The MIT OpenCourseWare Update" email newsletter. 2. How You Are Using MIT OCW? ---------------------------------------------------------------- The hope is that educators around the world will be able to utilize the course materials presented on the MIT OCW Web site for curriculum development, and self-learners will be able to draw upon the materials for self-study or supplementary use. As we move forward to the publication of the course materials from 500 more MIT subjects in September 2003, the staff of MIT OCW is focused on evaluation and measurement of the MIT OCW Web site. We are trying to answer such questions as: How accessible are the MIT OCW course materials? How are people using the materials? What is the impact of MIT OCW? Are educators able to adapt MIT OCW materials for their own teaching? We would like to ask you to share your story with us for the purposes of developing user case studies. Tell us how you are using the MIT OCW materials. Please contact Jon Paul Potts, the MIT OCW Communications Manager, at jpotts@mit.edu, if you would like to share your case study. 3. Digging Deeper: Course 6.001 --------------------------------------------------------------- Each month, this newsletter offers subscribers an in-depth guide to one particular subject. This month, we delve into "Course 6.001: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs." This course, from MIT Professor Eric Grimson of MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), is the first course in the core of departmental subjects required for all undergraduates in EECS. The course introduces students to the principles of computation. Upon completion of 6.001, students should be able to explain and apply the basic methods from programming languages to analyze computational systems, and to generate solutions to abstract computational problems. Programming assignments - including a description of "How should I write up my projects?" are described in the Projects section. Topics from Professor Grimson's Lecture Notes are in PDF format and include topics such as "Good Programming Practices," "Data Mutation," "Object-Oriented Programming," "The Meta-circular Evaluator," and "Memory Management." There are also explanations of "Scheme Documentation" under the Tools section, including a "Guide to MIT Scheme, Updated" - the reference manual for MIT Scheme, listing all the commands - and the "Revised (4) Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme," the formal definition of the Scheme language. It will be interesting for you to look at how a language is described formally, but you should not need to consult this for 6.001. 4. A Frequently Asked Question ---------------------------------------------------------------- Q: Are there other experiments in educational technology underway at MIT? A: MIT is undertaking a number of ambitious projects to enhance and potentially transform the educational experience through the use of new technologies. These projects are stimulated and supported by the MIT Council on Educational Technology, by Project I-Campus, a collaboration between MIT and Microsoft Research, and by the Alex and Brit d'Arbeloff Fund for Excellence in MIT Education. MIT is also engaged in several collaborative and distance-learning projects around the world. In the future the technologies that are being developed to support these efforts may also be utilized to enhance MIT OCW materials. Some of these projects include StudioMIT, the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA), MIT's System Design and Management Program (SDM), and the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI). ---------------------------------------------------------------- MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) is a large-scale, Web-based publishing initiative with the goal of providing free, searchable, coherent access to MIT course materials for educators, students, and individual learners around the world. MIT OCW provides a new model for the dissemination of knowledge and collaboration among scholars around the world, and contributes to the "shared intellectual commons" in academia. While MIT OCW's published content is already providing value to visitors to the site, over the next five to 10 years published content, technology, and processes will become increasingly more robust. MIT OCW materials will exist as a single, searchable structure spanning all courses that will include uniform metadata about the contents of the course sites. The "MIT OpenCourseWare Update" welcomes your feedback and suggestions about this newsletter and the MIT OCW Web site. Please send your feedback to Jon Paul Potts, MIT OCW Communications Manager, at jpotts@mit.edu. To subscribe a friend to this email newsletter, forward the following link to them: http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/ocw-mail If you choose to not receive the "MIT OpenCourseWare Update" e-newsletter, you may unsubscribe from this list: http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/ocw-mail For an archive of past issues of the "MIT OpenCourseWare Update" e-newsletter: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/AboutOCW/newsletterarchive.htm _______________________________________________ ocw-mail mailing list ocw-mail@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/ocw-mail 12:29:14 PM    COMMENT []