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8</title></head><body>
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<div>The MIT OpenCourseWare Update: August 2004</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>A Monthly E-mail Newsletter for Users</div>
<div>and Friends of MIT OpenCourseWare</div>
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<div><br></div>
<div>The August 2004 MIT OpenCourseWare Update Contains:</div>
<div>1. New Courses Now Available</div>
<div>2. Upcoming MIT OCW Presentations</div>
<div>3. Digging Deeper: Course 8.224</div>
<div>4. A Frequently Asked Question</div>
<div>5. Comments</div>
<div>6. Newsletter Available Online at <a
href="http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/AboutOCW/newsletter.htm"
>http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/AboutOCW/newsletter.htm</a></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>1. New Courses Now Available</div>
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<div>Over the course of the summer, MIT OpenCourseWare will employ a
"rolling" publication schedule, releasing batches of new
courses to the Web site at <a
href="http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html">http://ocw.mit.edu</a> on a
weekly basis, leading to the publication of 200 new courses by
September 15. This milestone will mark the halfway point as MIT OCW
works toward the publication of virtually all of MIT's courses by the
year 2008. This month, we are pleased to offer the course materials
from 12 new MIT subjects, including:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><b>Electrical Engineering and Computer Science</b></div>
<div><a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/6-253Spring2004/CourseHome/index.htm"><span
></span>6.253 -- Convex Analysis and Optimization, Spring
2004</a></div>
<div><a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/6-432Spring2004/CourseHome/index.htm"><span
></span>6.432 -- Stochastic Processes, Detection, and Estimation,
Spring 2004</a></div>
<div><a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/6-844Spring2003/CourseHome/index.htm"><span
></span>6.844 -- Computability Theory of and with Scheme, Spring
2003</a></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><b>Media Arts and Sciences</b></div>
<div><a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Media-Arts-and-Sciences/MAS-962Fall1997/CourseHome/index.htm"><span
></span>MAS.962 -- Digital Typography, Fall 1997</a></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><b>Physics</b></div>
<div><a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-311Spring2004/CourseHome/index.htm"
>8.311 -- Electromagnetic Theory, Spring 2004</a></div>
<div><a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-942Fall2001/CourseHome/index.htm"
>8.942 -- Cosmology, Fall 2001</a></div>
<div><a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-962Spring2002/CourseHome/index.htm"
>8.962 -- General Relativity, Spring 2002</a></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><b>Political Science</b></div>
<div><a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Political-Science/17-20Spring2004/CourseHome/index.htm"><span
></span>17.20 -- Introduction to the American Political Process,
Spring 2004</a></div>
<div><a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Political-Science/17-951Spring2004/CourseHome/index.htm"><span
></span>17.951 -- Special Graduate Topic in Political Science: Public
Opinion, Spring 2004</a></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><b>Science, Technology, and Society</b></div>
<div><a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Science--Technology--and-Society/STS-035Spring2004/CourseHome/index.htm"><span
></span>STS.035 -- The History of Computing, Spring 2004</a></div>
<div><a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Science--Technology--and-Society/STS-436Spring2004/CourseHome/index.htm"><span
></span>STS.436 -- Cold War Science, Spring 2004</a></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><b>Women's Studies</b></div>
<div><a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Anthropology/21A-230JSpring2004/CourseHome/index.htm"><span
></span>SP.456J -- The Contemporary American Family, Spring
2004</a></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>MIT OCW will continue to publish new courses every week through
September 15. For a complete list of all course offerings, visit the <a
href="http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/all-courses.htm">complete
course list</a>.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>2. Upcoming MIT OCW Presentations</div>
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<div>Educators and learners interested in finding out more about MIT
OCW are encouraged to attend several upcoming educational and
information technology conferences. Various members of the MIT OCW
staff will attend these events and would welcome meeting users of the
materials available on the MIT OCW Web site.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>On Wednesday, September 1, Jon Paul Potts, the MIT OCW
Communications Manager, will speak at the 16th annual <a
href="http://itinstitute.usu.edu/">Instructional Technology Institute
at Utah State University</a> in Logan, UT.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>In October, MIT OCW staff will be speaking at the <a
href="http://www.educause.edu/conference/annual/2004/">EDUCAUSE 2004
Conference</a> in Denver, CO. On Thursday, October 21, Potts will
speak on "The Impact of Open Sharing: MIT OpenCourseWare,"
at 11:45 am, and at 4:55 pm, MIT OCW staff will host a poster session
and would be glad to meet with anyone who has questions about the MIT
OCW project.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Anne H. Margulies, the Executive Director of the MIT OCW project,
will be joined by members of the MIT faculty at the China Open
Resources for Education (CORE) International Forum 2004, to be held
September 1-4 in Shanghai. This international conference will explore
open course resources sharing, management, and technology for
effective utilization and enhancement of education. For information on
this event, or to discover more about CORE, visit <a
href="http://www.njtu.edu.cn/jg/jgws/content/core.htm"
>http://www.njtu.edu.cn/jg/jgws/content/core.htm</a></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>MIT OCW staff will also be speaking in Japan this fall. Farnaz
Haghseta, the External Outreach Coordinator for the MIT OCW project,
will be speaking at the <a
href="http://www.nime.ac.jp/conf2004e/">2004 NIME International
Symposium</a>. This event, to be held at Japan's National Institute of
Multimedia Education in Mihama-ku, Chiba-shi, Japan, will take place
November 17-18.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>3. Digging Deeper: Course 8.224</div>
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>
<div>Can I see a black hole at all? If I can see it, what does a black
hole look like? Does it look black? What does it feel like to fall
toward a black hole? Each month, this newsletter offers subscribers an
in-depth guide to one particular subject, and this month, we delve
into Professors Edmund Berthschinger and Edwin Taylor's <a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-224Exploring-Black-Holes--General-Relativity---AstrophysicsSpring2003/CourseHome/index.htm"><span
></span>Course 8.224 -- Exploring Black Holes: General Relativity and
Astrophysics</a>, from MIT's <a
href="http://web.mit.edu/physics/">Department of Physics</a>.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Professor Bertschinger is a theoretical astrophysicist who serves
as head of MIT's <a
href=
"http://web.mit.edu/physics/research/areasofresearch/astrophysics/astrophysics.html"><span
></span>Division of Astrophysics</a>. His research is focused in
cosmology and relativistic astrophysics, and <a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-224Exploring-Black-Holes--General-Relativity---AstrophysicsSpring2003/CourseHome/index.htm"><span
></span>Exploring Black Holes</a> is one of three courses available
from Professor Bertschinger on MIT OCW, the other two being <a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-942Fall2001/CourseHome/index.htm"
>Course 8.942 -- Cosmology</a> and <a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-962Spring2002/CourseHome/index.htm"
>Course 8.962 -- General Relativity</a>. Professor Taylor is a Senior
Research Scientist Emeritus at MIT.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Course 8.224 investigates the questions of the cosmos using
elementary calculus. The course homepage features a beautiful
image taken by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory, as presented on
<a href="http://apod.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/">NASA's Astronomy Picture of
the Day</a> Web site. The course site includes <a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-224Exploring-Black-Holes--General-Relativity---AstrophysicsSpring2003/Assignments/index.htm"><span
></span>Assignments</a>, <a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-224Exploring-Black-Holes--General-Relativity---AstrophysicsSpring2003/Exams/index.htm"><span
></span>Exams</a>, and a description of the <a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-224Exploring-Black-Holes--General-Relativity---AstrophysicsSpring2003/Projects/index.htm"><span
></span>end-of-term collaborative research project</a> that MIT
students enrolled in the course must complete.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The <a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-224Exploring-Black-Holes--General-Relativity---AstrophysicsSpring2003/LectureNotes/index.htm"><span
></span>Lecture Notes</a> for this course include slides, PDFs, and/or
videos for each of the seminar sessions, covering topics such as
"The Universe: Questions You Were Afraid to Ask,"
"Supermassive Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy --
Sagittarius A*," and "Cosmic Structure Formation: From
Inflation to Galaxies."</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>MIT OCW users are advised to check out MIT Professor Robert
Jaffe's <a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-20Introduction-to-Special-RelativityJanuary--IAP-2003/CourseHome/index.htm"><span
></span>Course 8.20 -- Introduction to Special Relativity</a> as a
prerequisite for Course 8.224. Professor Jaffe's MIT OCW Web site
introduces users to the basic ideas and equations of Albert Einstein's
Special Theory of Relativity, and will help them to better understand
the subject matter of <a
href=
"http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-224Exploring-Black-Holes--General-Relativity---AstrophysicsSpring2003/CourseHome/index.htm"><span
></span>Exploring Black Holes</a>.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>4. A Frequently Asked Question</div>
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<div>QUESTION: I have seen (or I am/represent) an individual,
organization, or institution that offers to teach MIT courses or tutor
students based on MIT materials. Does MIT approve or recognize such
individuals or organizations?</div>
<div>ANSWER: No, MIT has no relationship with, grants no special
permission to, and does not approve, endorse, or certify any
organizations, teachers, tutors, or other service providers who use
educational materials available on the MIT OCW Web site in connection
with their services. Except for students admitted to MIT and enrolled
at the Institute, MIT does not authorize the granting of any kind of
degree, certificate, or other recognition for participation in or
completion of any course of study based on or using published MIT
course materials.</div>
<div><br></div>
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<div><a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html">MIT OpenCourseWare</a>
(MIT OCW) is a large-scale, Web-based publishing initiative with the
goal of providing free, searchable access to MIT course materials for
educators, students, and individual learners around the world. These
materials are offered in a single, searchable structure spanning all
of MIT's academic disciplines, and include uniform metadata about the
contents of the individual subject sites.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>"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 <a href="mailto:jpotts@mit.edu">jpotts@mit.edu.</a></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>To subscribe a friend to this newsletter, forward the following
link to them:</div>
<div><a
href="http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/ocw-mail"
>http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/ocw-mail</a></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>If you choose to not receive the "MIT OpenCourseWare Update"
e-newsletter, unsubscribe at:</div>
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href="http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/ocw-mail"
>http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/ocw-mail</a></div>
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