[edtech] The MIT OpenCourseWare Update -- Vol. 2, Issue 6

ocw-mail@MIT.EDU ocw-mail at MIT.EDU
Tue Jun 15 14:04:14 EDT 2004


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The MIT OpenCourseWare Update: June 2004

A Monthly E-mail Newsletter for Users
and Friends of MIT OpenCourseWare
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The June 2004 MIT OpenCourseWare Update Contains:
1. 21st Century Achievement Awards
2. Improving MIT OCW Learning Communities
3. Digging Deeper: Course 5.301
4. A Frequently Asked Question
5. Comments
6. Newsletter Available Online at 
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/AboutOCW/newsletter.htm>http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/AboutOCW/newsletter.htm



1. 21st Century Achievement Awards
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MIT and Sapient Corp., the Cambridge, MA-based business consulting 
and technology services firm that helped MIT build the OpenCourseWare 
Web site, were jointly honored as the worldwide winner of the 
prestigious Computerworld 21st Century Achievement Award in Education 
and Academia during a ceremony held June 7 in Washington, D.C. MIT 
and Sapient were selected by the Computerworld Honors Foundation for 
their work to develop MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW), which was named 
as the best application of IT in the field of education. Bill Gates, 
Chairman and Chief Software Architect of Microsoft, originally 
nominated MIT and Sapient as a Computerworld Laureate in recognition 
of MIT OCW's contribution to the global information technology 
revolution and its positive impact on society.

"Recipients of the Computerworld Honors 21st Century Achievement 
Awards represent those organizations whose use of information 
technology has been especially noteworthy for the originality of its 
conception, the breadth of its vision, and the significance of its 
benefit to society," said Daniel Morrow, Executive Director of the 
Computerworld Honors Program.

This year's awards, in 10 categories, were presented at a gala event 
at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., and were 
attended by over 500 guests, including leaders of the information 
technology industry, scholars, and diplomats representing more than 
50 countries. The 2004 collection of Laureates includes innovative 
applications of technology from 36 U.S. states and 26 countries. MIT 
Professor Dick K.P. Yue, whose 
"<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Ocean-Engineering/13-021Marine-HydrodynamicsFall2001/CourseHome/index.htm>Course 
13.021: Marine Hydrodynamics" is available on MIT OCW, accepted the 
award with Mike Detjen of Sapient Corp.

"We are extremely honored to be recognized with Sapient for our role 
in promoting education through technology," said Anne H. Margulies, 
Executive Director of MIT OCW. "Since the launch of our 
proof-of-concept pilot in fall 2003, the MIT OCW Web site has 
received traffic from users in more than 215 countries, city-states 
and territories, making it a truly global initiative. Our partnership 
with Sapient enabled us to provide a reliable and user-friendly site 
for educators and learners around the world, and it is a wonderful 
honor to be jointly recognized with Sapient by the prestigious 
Computerworld Honors program."

A panel of distinguished judges selected the winning applications 
based on originality of conception, breadth of vision, and 
significance to society. A 
<http://www.cwheroes.org/his_4a_detail.asp?id=5110>case study on MIT 
OCW has been archived in the 2004 Computerworld Honors Collection. 
Additional information about the 2004 collection of Laureates is 
available at http://www.cwheroes.org, where the entire collection is 
available to scholars, researchers, and the general public.



2. Improving MIT OCW Learning Communities
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MIT OCW has embarked on a pilot research project with the Open 
Sustainable Learning Opportunities (OSLO) Research Group at Utah 
State University. Seven MIT OCW courses now offer links to learning 
communities where individuals around the world can connect with each 
other, collaborate, form study groups, and receive support for their 
use of MIT OCW materials in formal and informal educational settings. 
These links appear in the left-hand navigation of the following MIT 
OCW courses:
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Civil-and-Environmental-Engineering/1-00Introduction-to-Computers-and-Engineering-Problem-SolvingFall2002/LearningCommunity/index.htm>Course 
1.00 - Introduction to Computers and Engineering Problem Solving
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/6-046JIntroduction-to-AlgorithmsFall2001/LearningCommunity/index.htm>Course 
6.046J - Introduction to Algorithms
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-02Electricity-and-MagnetismSpring2002/LearningCommunity/index.htm>Course 
8.02 - Electricity and Magnetism
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Urban-Studies-and-Planning/11-431JReal-Estate-Finance-and-InvestmentFall2002/LearningCommunity/index.htm>Course 
11.431J - Real Estate Finance and Investment
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Economics/14-03Intermediate-Applied-MicroeconomicsFall2000/LearningCommunity/index.htm>Course 
14.03 - Intermediate Applied Microeconomics
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-053Introduction-to-OptimizationSpring2002/LearningCommunity/index.htm>Course 
15.053 - Introduction to Optimization
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Mathematics/18-06Linear-AlgebraFall2002/LearningCommunity/index.htm>Course 
18.06 - Linear Algebra

This joint MIT OCW/Utah State University research project, called 
<http://ols.usu.edu>Open Learning Support (OLS) is focused on 
building "social software" that enables informal learning communities 
to form around existing open educational content. The OSLO Research 
Group is committed to supporting OLS users in their efforts to learn 
using MIT OCW materials. Based on feedback from early users of the 
pilot communities, some new features have recently been added to OLS, 
including:
Link to MIT/OCW Materials -- Forums now contain a convenient link to 
the associated MIT OCW educational materials, making it easier for 
users of the forums to reference the materials while participating in 
active discussions.
RSS Feeds -- RSS feeds are now available for OLS News and Forums to 
help keep people up-to-date on the latest postings.
Source Code in the Body of Posts -- It is now possible to include 
programming / source code in the body of a post and preserve the 
layout by using an HTML <pre> tag.
MIT Course Numbers -- Course numbers have been added to the title of 
forums, making it easier to identify and find the particular course 
materials on the MIT OCW Web site.

To see an example of one of these pilot learning communities, connect 
to the pilot learning community for 
"<http://ols.usu.edu/courses/showforum?ForumID=6>Course 18.06: Linear 
Algebra" now.



3. Digging Deeper: Course 15.667
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Each month, this newsletter offers subscribers an in-depth guide to 
one particular subject. This month, we delve into 
"<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-667Spring2001/CourseHome/index.htm>Course 
15.667: Negotiation and Conflict Management," a course from the 
<http://mitsloan.mit.edu/indexflash.php>Sloan School of Management 
taught by Professor Mary Rowe.

Course 15.667 presents negotiation theory -- strategies and styles -- 
within an employment context. In addition to the theory and exercises 
presented in class, students practice negotiating with role-playing 
simulations that cover a range of topics. Students also learn how to 
negotiate in difficult situations, which include abrasiveness, 
racism, sexism, whistle-blowing, and emergencies. The course covers 
conflict management as a first party and as a third party. 
Third-party skills include helping others deal directly with their 
conflicts, mediation, investigation, arbitration, and helping the 
system change as a result of a dispute.

The MIT OCW site for "Negotiation and Conflct Management," includes a 
wealth of resources for anyone interested in teaching or learning 
about negotiation. The 
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-667Spring2001/LectureNotes/index.htm>Lecture 
Notes section includes full instructions for role-play simulations, 
and class exercises with discussion questions and instructor's notes. 
The most essential handouts and ideas from the course have been 
assembled into a packet called 
<http://ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-667Spring2001/32E7DD35-656A-4B5E-BBD0-5A33594CF197/0/negotiation101.pdf>Negotiation 
101. In addition, a list of useful books on negotiations and conflict 
management is included in the 
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-667Spring2001/RelatedResources/index.htm>Related 
Resources section for those who would like to learn more about some 
of the topics in this class.



4. A Frequently Asked Question
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QUESTION: How do I find what courses are available?

ANSWER: MIT OCW offers the educational materials from 701 MIT 
courses. There are three ways to access the materials: Utilize the 
Search function that can be found in the left-hand corner of every 
page on the <http://ocw.mit.edu/>MIT OCW site. Search for specific 
text, such as certain academic discipline area, across all courses or 
within just one course. To perform a detailed search, use our 
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/jsp/AdvancedSearch.jsp>Advanced Search.

A second way to see what courses are available is to click on 
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/all-courses.htm>Course List  that 
is listed in the top right-corner navigation of every page on the MIT 
OCW Web site. This will allow you to view the list of every available 
course, grouped into the 33 MIT academic departments.

Or, view the courses currently available grouped by MIT department. 
The departments that have MIT OCW course sites available are listed 
in the left-hand navigation bar of the <http://ocw.mit.edu/>MIT OCW 
homepage. An example would be the MIT Department of Aeronautics and 
Astronautics. Click on the 
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Aeronautics-and-Astronautics/index.htm>Aeronautics 
and Astronautics link in the left navigation bar on the MIT OCW 
homepage, and you will go to the department page, which includes a 
complete list of MIT Aero/Astro courses offered, along with a brief 
description of the department and its curriculum goals.


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<http://ocw.mit.edu/>MIT OpenCourseWare (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.

"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 <mailto:jpotts at mit.edu>jpotts at mit.edu.

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