From jfoster at MIT.EDU Wed Jun 1 09:52:39 2005 From: jfoster at MIT.EDU (jfoster@MIT.EDU) Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 09:52:39 -0400 Subject: [edtech] Ed Tech Times Update: Stellar Community Survey Message-ID: <200506011352.j51DqdAJ001922@jaki.mit.edu> (((((((((((( Ed Tech Times Update: Stellar Community Survey )))))))))))) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ What would you do to make Stellar more useful? If you a user of MIT's Stellar course management system, please click on the link below and take five minutes to fill in the survey. It may take only a few minutes of your time, but your input can influence future development and make Stellar a better and more useful tool for you. (Please feel free to forward this invitation along to other Stellar users.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://edtech.mit.edu/times/archives/000072.html -- From jfoster at MIT.EDU Wed Jun 8 16:35:02 2005 From: jfoster at MIT.EDU (Jean Foster) Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 16:35:02 -0400 Subject: [edtech] Ed Tech Partners meeting notes - 6/6/2005 Message-ID: <8f45eb7a19dd4495afa3d95bd0ddf3bd@mit.edu> Present: Babi Mitra (AMPS), Margret Branchowski (Dspace), Dee Kane (Sloan), Janet Wasserstein (DUE?), Kimberle Koile (Csail), Carol Sardo (Linc), Jean Foster (IS&T Academic Computing), Margaret Meehan (AMPS), Craig Counterman (AMPS-Stellar), Katie Vale (IS&T Academic Computing), Molly Ruggles (SMA), Peter Hess (SMA) (Please let me know if I got anyone's update details wrong.) Ed Tech Partners next year There will be fewer meetings (bi-monthly or semesterly) and they will be project updates and discussions. Featured speakers will be invited to present at the Crosstalk seminar series which all Ed Tech Partners are invited to attend. Linc (Carol Sardo): Project to bridge the divide in online learning between developing nations and MIT. Third Linc Symposium to be held in Aug. will attract attendees from all over the world to share best practices and resources. MIT Faculty Advisory Board is helping them to identify more narrow focus...should they become a professional society or a funding source to create learning communiites in dev countries using MIT assets? SMA2 & related projects (Molly Ruggles & Peter Hess) - SMA2 beginning. Primary focus is to provide Singapore students with more engagement with MIT. They will spend one semester on campus( instead of a few weeks in SMA1). Students in SMA II will get a degree from MIT & their home institute (2 masters); they must apply to MIT and adhere to all of the MIT standards but they are funded by Singapore. 50 - 100 students; there will be 5 or 6 programs. There will be more use of research interaction groups, small video conference rooms to support PhD students. More research oriented than SMA1. SMA2 runs until 2012. - Asynchronous class delivery: looking into different methods. Currently using Real Player 1 with powerpoint slides and video of lecturer synchronized. New software called Apreso Classroom pre-formats everything into a single screen allowing technicians to tap into the video display. This allows annotations to be captured. It relies on ethernet so can be used in classrooms other than level 5 classrooms. AMPS can wheel video equipment into the room to tape a presentation. The lectures can be placed in Dspace. (Dspace doesn't yet have a streaming server but they would do it if there was interest) SMA content is already available to anyone at MIT. - Web conferencing: Looking at different online conference systems. Currently use netmeeting. - Boston Ed Tech Group: (Peter Hess) has pulled together a Boston Ed Tech group, similar to this group but open to schools in the Boston area, sponsored by NERCOMP. If people are interested in being added to the mailing list they can join by sending email to phess at mit.edu. FRADS: - (Janet Wasserstein) - finds funding for ed tech projects. Janet will be presenting at the 11th Cambridge International Conference on Distance Learning. If anyone finds a foundation that provides ed tech project money, let Janet know. (janetw at mit.edu) Classroom Learning Partner ( Kimberle Koile) - Csail tablet PC research projects. Instructor puts up in-class exercises (based on Conference XP distributed presentation system). Instructor & students all use tablets (digital ink). Question is placed on slide and students submit their answer to the instructor's machine which then gets turned into a Powerpoint slide. This works best for 8 or 10 students. This project will make it scale to a class of 300. (Kimberle is an AI specialist). They will build software to aggregate the answers into equivalence classes. Similar to the personal response system (PRS) polling. 3 students are working on the tools, authoring, sketch,) Working with Rudy in TLL. They would like the tablet PCs to be built into the furniture. (Others working with Tablet PC technology - Rutledge Ellis-Benhke BCS, Ian Waites in Aero Astro,) *Molly Ruggles has a few Wacom Tablets in their office that Kimberle can try out. Academic Computing Projects - Clusters and Spaces group: Linux and PC cluster, MAC cluster, and some collaborative learning spaces. Looking at similar spaces in dorms - Software dev group: 3 projects: Narravision (Visualizing Cultures). Scaffolding tool for professional science and eng software to make it easier for novices. - Curriculum Integration group (Ed Tech Consultants): Cultura re-write; electronic portfolios project, pilots of blogs and wikis; course 6 class); exploring guided enquiry systems for simulations (working with CECI and John Belcher); possible pilot this fall; - AMPS/Academic Computing Fall targeted Pilots: Sakai gradebook, assesment tool, image repository search, Sakai core sandbox; Stellar usability improvements to request process & archiving - Image repository management tools discovery project: (I forgot to mention this one during the meeting!) Jean is gathering requirements in order to determine scope of this work. Academic Customers include School of Architecture, SHASS, Media Lab, & non-academic users include PSB, Sloan, MIT Museum, etc. Report and recommendations will be done this summer. Dspace - 70 other Dspace users around world (that they know of) 2nd Dspace users meeting in Cambridge, UK in July. MIT content addition of digital theses (10 - 11k thesis over summer) and from now on all theses will be in Dspace (scanned). - 3 research projects: 1. Archiving OCW sites: (Bill Reilly) protocols for getting sites from OCW into Dspace; Sloan can get a website out of Dspace into Sloanspace. Instructors can pull the data into Sloanspace. Year two will work on how the faculty can do this themselves. 2. Search project called Similie - tools that help search systems that use different metadata schemas using RDF. 3. National archiving experiment - national archives and san diego super computer center to come up with a strategie to use the software they developed to used world distributed computers to archive large amounts of data. * Margret : will send the URL SloanSpace .LRN focussing on user feedback for SloanSpace. Re-org in Sloan IT, that brings it into alignment with IS&T reorg. DeeDee in in Sloan Academic Computing. What is Sloan Academic Computing. Simulation games in trading and negotiation games that run on SloanSpace. * Maybe we could see demos of that next fall? Focus is continuation on enhancements: search and facelift & calendar package functionality and usability. AMPS: 1. Course management - Stellar: 514 courses on stellar in Spring '05; eReserves pilot; integration with registrar's data; future - exploring how to converge into one system (currently working with Sloan) 2. Sakai- ( ~ 80 partners): how does it move forward 3. Media-enabled classrooms SDM, Cambridge, SMA program; working with DUE on classroom planning. 4. Rich media production; Video content for OCW; community events; multi media for research grants. 5. Hawk cam - none this year 6. Walt Disney wants to use Stellar (name?) for their distance learning From huxley at MIT.EDU Thu Jun 9 14:43:05 2005 From: huxley at MIT.EDU (Huxley, Bil) Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 14:43:05 -0400 Subject: [edtech] Final Report available on Departmental Databases project Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.2.20050609143915.03a625d0@po9.mit.edu> Greetings, The project team would like to thank the hundreds of contributors across the full breadth of the MIT community for the considered input, perspective, and vision they provided to the Departmental Database Applications Development Project. The project's Final Report of recommendations to MIT IT leadership is now available via the web at: http://web.mit.edu/ist/org/admincomputing/notebooks/DDADP/DDADP-Final-Report.pdf IS&T and IT leaders have already begun to look closely at these recommendations in the context of all of their existing and proposed commitments, responsibilities, and objectives. We will be hearing further on this topic this summer. I'd also like to expressly thank each of the members of the team for their hard work and their commitment to seeking the best possible solutions for all of MIT that are realistic, fully integrated, and sustainable. If you cross paths with any of these individuals you have my encouragement to acknowledge their dedication. The Departmental Database Applications Development Project Team - DDADP at mit.edu Dave Woodruff - Lab for Nuclear Science, Sponsored Research Technical Staff Craig Thomas - Libraries, Local Technology Expert Mike Sherman - Dept. of Facilities, Manager, Applications and Network Services Cecilia Marra - DUE, Academic Services, Tech Support Specialist Bil Huxley - IS&T, Administrative Computing Bill Barrasso - IS&T, Client Support Services, Departmental IT Resources Bil Huxley Manager, Administrative Computing Information Services & Technology (IS&T) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Room W92-210 Cambridge, MA 02139 huxley at mit.edu, 617.253.8553 From bowser at MIT.EDU Tue Jun 14 09:09:27 2005 From: bowser at MIT.EDU (Deb Bowser) Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 09:09:27 -0400 Subject: [edtech] iPassConnect Release Effort Underway Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.2.20050614090504.09a09ac0@po12.mit.edu> Date: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 To: MIT Community: itpartners at mit.edu, macpartners at mit.edu, winpartners at mit.edu, sw-release-announce at mit.edu, ed-tech at mit.edu Cc: itag at mit.edu, is&t at mit.edu From: Software Release Team Subject: iPassConnect Release Effort Underway Good day: IS&T is pleased to announce a release effort is currently underway for new versions of iPassConnect. iPassConnect clients for Windows (version 3.30) and for Macintosh OS X (version 2.37), is a simple, easy to use desktop client that allows remote users to connect to the internet through iPass' global network of providers. It has a new point-and-click interface for connecting to iPass local access points, and supports Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or later and Mac OS 10.3 or later. The release effort will focus on creating documentation, testing and ramping up support for the new iPassConnect clients. iPassConnect is not intended to replace a dial-up connection from your home that you use for more than four hours a month. For connections such as this, you should continue to use your current dial-up provider, switch to a high speed provider: or use MIT's Tether service: . New features and improvements: ---------------------------------------------------- Macintosh: Enhanced Modem State Detection: On Macintosh OS 10.3.x, iPassConnect will now validate that the modem is ready before attempting to connect. Automatic Location Management: Improved ability to make a connection even if the Automatic location is deleted. Previously, on Macintosh OS 10.3.x, if the Automatic location was deleted and the modem was unselected in the current profile, the Connect button would gray out when clicked. Now iPassConnect will dial properly regardless of the current active or inactive location. Windows: Administrative Privilege Levels Not Required: In previous versions of iPassConnect, many program operations, such as launching third-party applications, or detecting wireless networks were restricted to users with elevated privilege levels. In iPassConnect 3.30, users at all privilege levels (restricted users, power users, and administrators) will have access to all iPassConnect operations. Installation and Uninstallation: Please note that administrative rights are still required for the installation and uninstallation of iPassConnect 3.30. However, once installed, future software updates from version 3.30 to a later version will not require administrative rights Speed-Prioritized Update: This feature will allows iPassConnect to take advantage of the times when the user is connected over a high-speed connection, to optimize the update experience and reduce download times. If enabled, iPassConnect will only perform a software update when the user is connected to a high-speed connection, typically a LAN or broadband connection. Known issues: -------------------------------------- Duplicate Bookmark Names: Bookmark names can be duplicated. To avoid confusion, make sure each Bookmark has a unique name. No Idle Timeout Message: No warning message will be shown before an idle timeout. Post-Connect Actions after Phonebook Update: iPassConnect will launch post-connect actions after each Phonebook update. We will send updates as needed throughout the process. For more information on iPassConnect see the product release notebook: . If you have questions or suggestions, please contact the team via e-mail at ipass-release at mit.edu. If you are a current, registered user of iPassConnect and would like to test the new client(s), please contact us. Deb Bowser iPassConnect Product Release Coordinator Client Support Services Information Services and Technology (IS&T) Massachusetts Institute of Technology Room W92-176 Cambridge, MA 02139 617-253-3879 bowser at mit.edu From jfoster at MIT.EDU Tue Jun 14 14:53:36 2005 From: jfoster at MIT.EDU (jfoster@MIT.EDU) Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 14:53:36 -0400 Subject: [edtech] Ed Tech Times Update: Crosstalk Seminar - Making Work Visible: The Learning Portal Project at Emerson College Message-ID: <200506141853.j5EIraqh015880@jaki.mit.edu> Ed Tech Times Update: Crosstalk Seminar - Making Work Visible: The Learning Portal Project at Emerson College ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thursday, June 23, 2005, 2:00 pm to 4:00pm, Bush Room (10-105) The Emerson College Learning Portal Project is the latest and most ambitious iteration in their experiments in multimedia pedagogy. Combining blog and portal technology, this system has implications for pedagogy, software design, and the ways in which software does or does not reflect the actual craft practices of teaching and learning. In his presentation, David Bogen, Associate Professor of Sociology and Executive Director of the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College, will discuss the project and its implications for planning and integration. Click on the link below for details. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://edtech.mit.edu/times/archives/000073.html -- From jfoster at MIT.EDU Thu Jun 16 09:34:23 2005 From: jfoster at MIT.EDU (Jean Foster) Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 09:34:23 -0400 Subject: [edtech] Ed Tech Partners meeting notes - 6/6/2005 - REVISED Message-ID: <1118928863.6573.268.camel@arizona.mit.edu> Carol Sardo requested this revision to my notes on Linc: > Linc > (Carol Sardo):The purpose of LINC is to leverage multimedia > technologies such as the Internet, television, and radio to help > facilitate world-class tertiary education in emerging nations. > The third Linc Symposium, to be held in October, will attract attendees > from all over the world to share best practices and resources. > MIT Faculty Advisory Board is helping them to strategize and > identify more narrow focus; two possibilities include becoming a > professional society or a funding source to create learning > communiites in dev countries using MIT assets? -- Jean Foster Usability Consultant/ Academic Computing Communications Coordinator N42-040, jfoster at mit.edu, x3-3909 -jean- From jfoster at MIT.EDU Thu Jun 16 12:53:00 2005 From: jfoster at MIT.EDU (Jean Foster) Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 12:53:00 -0400 Subject: [edtech] Ed Tech Partners meeting notes - 6/6/2005 - MORE REVISIONS Message-ID: <1118940779.6573.456.camel@arizona.mit.edu> Revisions (in blue) from Margret Branschofsky and William Reilly : > Dspace > - (Margaret Branschofsky) 70 other Dspace users around world (that > they know of) 2nd Dspace users meeting in Cambridge, UK in July. MIT > content addition of digital theses (10 - 11k thesis over summer) and > from now on all theses will be in Dspace (scanned). > - 3 research projects: > 1. CWSpace Project (Archiving OCW sites in Dspace): (William Reilly) This MIT iCampus project, CWSpace, completed its first (of two) years recently, demonstrating prototypes that automatically create archivable "Content Packages" of OCW courses, for transfer via newly developed Web Services to DSpace, for long-term preservation, as well as dissemination. Also prototyped was the use of an open source, standards-based system on top of SloanSpace (dotLRN) that permits an instructor to import these Content Packages out of DSpace, such that the same OCW course can now be rendered in SloanSpace. Work in Year Two concerns scaling up, productionizing, and further extending the interoperability to SloanSpace and Stellar/Sakai. > 2. Search project called Similie - tools that help search systems that > use different metadata schemas using RDF. > 3. National archiving experiment - national archives and san diego > super computer center to come up with a strategy to use the software > they developed to use world distributed computers to archive large > amounts of data. > * Margret : will send the URL http://cwspace.mit.edu/ http://simile.mit.edu/ http://simile.mit.edu/wiki/WhatIsSimile http://libraries.mit.edu/dlrg/projects.html -jean- -- Jean Foster Usability Consultant/ Academic Computing Communications Coordinator N42-040, jfoster at mit.edu, x3-3909 From awillis at MIT.EDU Mon Jun 20 09:00:06 2005 From: awillis at MIT.EDU (Albert Willis) Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 09:00:06 -0400 Subject: [edtech] Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" Update Message-ID: Summary ------- Since the release of Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" on April 29, IS&T, in collaboration with other departments, labs and centers, has done a thorough investigation of what it offers, which is quite a lot. Spotlight, Dashboard, VoiceOver and Automator are some of the features that will prove to be very useful in the MIT environment as Tiger matures. With any new operating system, especially one that has as many under- the-hood changes as Tiger, there are going to incompatibilities and bugs. About two weeks after Tiger was released, Apple released Mac OS X 10.4.1, which fixed many issues (see below). It's likely that Apple will release frequent updates as they did when 10.2 and 10.3 were initially released. Information Services and Technology recommends that administrative users, especially those that depend on SAPgui for Mac OS X should not upgrade to Tiger at this time. No version of SAPgui functions properly on Tiger--some transactions don't work or can cause SAPgui to crash or corrupt data. While Apple and SAP are working on the issues, no one has offered an estimate for when the issues will be resolved. Some SAP users can use SAPweb or Citrix (to access the Windows version of SAP) until SAP works properly on Tiger; please see the Mac OS X release notebook (http://web.mit.edu/swrt/releases/ macosx10.4/) for additional information. In addition, departments, labs and centers that rely on VPN, Kerberos authentication at login or OpenAFS should not upgrade to Mac OS X 10.4 at this time, as these applications and features don't currently work and we don't have a timeframe when they will. IS&T continues to gear up support for Mac OS X 10.4. Support from the Computing Help Desk is currently limited to help getting connected to MITnet and basic configuration issues. As supported application issues become resolved, more in-depth support will be available. Below are details on application and operating system issues in Tiger. Please contact the Mac OS X release team at macosx- release at mit.edu if you have further questions. Supported Application Issues ---------------------------- * SAPgui We expect a future version of Mac OS X 10.4's Java Runtime Environment to address some reported problems and allow SAP to release SAPgui 6.40 for Tiger. (It is possible that Apple could correct problems in a different version of the Mac OS X 10.4 Java Runtime Environment which would allow an earlier version of the SAPgui to run on Tiger - but neither Apple nor SAP have committed that they will do this.) * Virex Virex 7.2.1 works on Mac OS X 10.4. However, the newest versions (7.5.1 and 7.6) are not compatible with Mac OS X 10.4. McAfee has indicated that version 7.7 will be compatible, but has not announced when it will be available. * VPN Cisco has released version 4.6.03 of their virtual private network (VPN) client, which is now compatible with Mac OS X 10.4. However, this version works only on single processor machines--dual processor machines are not supported. IS&T expects to release this version of the VPN client soon and will follow up with the dual processor version when it is available. Operating System Update and Issues ---------------------------------- * Kerberos authentication at login Several departments take advantage of a feature of Mac OS X (10.2 or greater) that grants Kerberos tickets to a user upon a successful login when using their Kerberos principal and password. This feature isn't currently available in Mac OS X 10.4. In addition, upgrading a 10.3 machine that uses this feature to 10.4 disables the ability to login to the machine at all. MIT's Kerberos development team and Apple are working to resolve this problem. * Certificates Mac OS X 10.4 adds more stringent handling of certificates compared to previous versions of Mac OS X. As a result, while certificates work, enabling Safari and Mail to work securely, the default behavior is not to recognize the MIT Certificate Authority (also known as the MIT CA) as trusted. We are investigating methods for resolving this issue. * OpenAFS OpenAFS is an open-source software project that enables Mac OS X users to use AFS, a network filesystem. MIT's Athena uses AFS; OpenAFS allows users to easily access their Athena home directories, for example. At this time, OpenAFS doesn't work on Mac OS X 10.4. A future version of OpenAFS is expected to function properly on 10.4. * 10.4.1 On May 16, Apple released Mac OS X 10.4.1 which includes improvement for: - file sharing using AFP and SMB/CIFS network file services - using DHCP in wireless networks - user login when accessing LDAP and Active Directory servers - core graphics including updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers - synchronization with .Mac - Address Book, iCal, Font Book, Mail, and Preview applications - Dashboard widgets: Address Book, Flight Tracker, Phone Book, and World Clock - compatibility with third party applications and devices Detailed information on 10.4.1 is available at http:// www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n301517. Al Willis, for the Mac OS X release team Deb Bowser Joey Gottinger Jonathan Reed Lee Ridgway Helen Rose Matthias Thorn Karl Witt ______________________________ Albert Willis Macintosh Platform Coordinator - Software Release Team Information Services and Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology awillis at mit.edu From jfoster at MIT.EDU Thu Jun 23 10:24:01 2005 From: jfoster at MIT.EDU (Jean Foster) Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:24:01 -0400 Subject: [edtech] Ed Tech Times Update: Crosstalk Seminar - Making Work Visible: The Learning Portal Project at Emerson College Message-ID: <3ea78a5ba78d3aa730695d5f1fb082dc@mit.edu> Ed Tech Times Update: Crosstalk Seminar - Making Work Visible: The Learning Portal Project at Emerson College ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thursday, June 23, 2005, 2:00 pm to 4:00pm, Bush Room (10-105) (Please forward to any lists or individuals you think might be interested.) The Emerson College Learning Portal Project is the latest and most ambitious iteration in their experiments in multimedia pedagogy. Combining blog and portal technology, this system has implications for pedagogy, software design, and the ways in which software does or does not reflect the actual craft practices of teaching and learning. In his presentation, David Bogen, Associate Professor of Sociology and Executive Director of the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College, will discuss the project and its implications for planning and integration. Click on the link below for details. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://edtech.mit.edu/times/archives/000073.html ---------------- Jean Foster Usability Consultant/ Communications Coordinator, Academic Computing MIT Information Services and Technology x3.3909, jfoster at mit.edu From bowser at MIT.EDU Thu Jun 30 15:23:02 2005 From: bowser at MIT.EDU (Deb Bowser) Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 15:23:02 -0400 Subject: [edtech] IS&T Software Update for June 2005 Message-ID: <6.2.3.4.2.20050630150855.01e82ad0@po12.mit.edu> Date: Wednesday, June 30, 2005 To: Members of the MIT Community: itpartners at mit.edu, macpartners at mit.edu, winpartners at mit.edu, sw-release-announce at mit.edu, ed-tech at mit.edu, linux-help at mit.edu From: Software Release Team Subj: IS&T Software Update for June 2005 Cc: is&t at mit.edu, itag at mit.edu, it-lead at mit.edu This monthly communication is intended for Faculty, Staff and Students within the MIT Community, to provide updated information regarding new and upcoming software products and services. Topics of the month: ---------------------------------------- 1. Recently released software 2. Software release efforts underway 3. Volume & site license software update 4. Software retirement 5. Windows Automatic Update Service (WAUS) 6. How are we doing? Let us know 1. Recent Releases ------------------------------------------------------- Linux ------------------ RedHat Enterprise Linux 4 - June 16, 2005 Macintosh ------------------- Virtual Private Network (VPN) 4.6.04 - June 30, 2005 (update supports single and multi-processor systems under Tiger) Windows ----------------- None 2. Software Release Efforts Underway ------------------------------------------------------ Linux ----------- Back-to-school 2005 CD - August 2005 Macintosh ---------------- Apple Mail - Release effort underway - July 2005 Back-to-school 2005 CD - August 2005 Eudora 6.2.3 - Release effort underway - July 2005 iPassConnect 2.37 - Release effort underway - July 2005 Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) - Release effort underway - June 2005 Windows ----------------- Back-to-school 2005 CD - August 2005 Eudora 6.2.3 - Release effort underway - July 2005 iPassConnect 3.30 - Release effort underway - July 2005 Microsoft Anti-spyware, Beta 1, refresh 2 - evaluation in progress To obtain information on any of the release efforts listed, please visit our page: 3. Volume Site License Software Update --------------------------------------------------------- The Mathematica license has been renewed for another three years. Department Wide and Faculty/Staff licenses using the NCN codes from last year will continue to function through July. New this year is a nominal fee of $30 for student use and a price increase for the department wide and single user faculty/staff Mathematica licenses. More information can be found in the VSLS site at: . Orders for this year are now being accepted. 4. Software retirement -------------------------------------------------- A reminder that the following software will be retired effective today, June 30, 2005: Netscape 7.02 (Mac and Windows) We encourage users to review IS&T's FY06 browser recommendations: Microsoft Office XP (Windows) Microsoft Office v.X (Mac OS X) We encourage users to upgrade to Office 2003 (Windows) or Office 2004 (Mac OS X) respectively. Please see the Microsoft Campus Agreement at MIT for further information: . 5. Windows Automatic Update Service (WAUS) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- We recommend users configure their Windows machines to use MIT's Windows Automatic Update Service (WAUS) for critical patches and service pack deployment. For more information about and instructions on how to configure your machines to use WAUS, see the WAUS documentation at: < http://web.mit.edu/ist/topics/windows/updates/> 6. How are we doing? - Let us know -------------------------------------------------------------- Do you find this communication helpful? Are there other items of interest you would like to see included as well? Please take a moment to let us know: You can always send e-mail to swrt at mit.edu with any questions and comments you have pertaining to this communication or other software release matters. Deb Bowser QA Coordinator - Software Release Team Client Support Services Information Services and Technology (IS&T) Massachusetts Institute of Technology Room W92-176 Cambridge, MA 02139 617-253-3879 bowser at mit.edu From ocw-mail at MIT.EDU Thu Jun 23 16:33:46 2005 From: ocw-mail at MIT.EDU (ocw-mail@MIT.EDU) Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 20:33:46 -0000 Subject: [edtech] The MIT OpenCourseWare Update -- Vol. 3, Issue 6 Message-ID: ---------------------------------------------------------------- The MIT OpenCourseWare Update: June 2005 A Monthly E-mail Newsletter for Users and Friends of MIT OpenCourseWare ---------------------------------------------------------------- The June 2005 MIT OpenCourseWare Update Contains: 1. Technology-Enabled Active Learning in Physics 2. A Frequently Asked Question 3. Johns Hopkins School of Public Health OCW 4. Utah State University OCW 5. Japan OCW Alliance 6. Comments 7. Newsletter Available Online at http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/AboutOCW/newsletter.htm 1. Technology-Enabled Active Learning in Physics ---------------------------------------------------------------- One of the unique aspects of MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW), is that in several academic areas, we offer multiple course sites for the same topic in cases where there are different pedagogical models being taught by different members of the MIT faculty. A good example of this can be seen in the MIT Department of Physics. All MIT undergraduates must take Physics II (Electricity and Magnetism), however, MIT offers several versions of Physics II, and this is reflected on the MIT OCW web site. In Spring 2005, MIT OCW published Course 8.02T -- Electricity and Magnetism, Spring 2005, a freshman-level course that is the second semester of introductory physics. The subject is taught using the TEAL (Technology Enabled Active Learning) format which utilizes small group interaction and current technology. The TEAL/Studio Project is a new approach to physics education designed to help students develop much better intuition about, and conceptual models of, physical phenomena. Developed by a team of faculty led by MIT Professor John Belcher, TEAL features table-top experiments utilizing laptop computers for data acquisition and problem-solving workshops. Read the TEAL Syllabus for information about the course learning objectives, and how the course is organized. The Visualizations section offers multimedia tools that demonstrate various physical phenomena, including Vector Fields, Electrostatics, Magnetostatics, Faraday's Law, and Light. These visualizations are freely available for download by faculty utilizing MIT OCW to develop their own introductory physics courses. In the Lecture Notes section, there is a full set of course notes written by Belcher and his colleagues,Dr. Sen-Ben Liao and Dr. Peter Dourmashkin. The TEAL classroom includes the opportunity for students to use the Personal Response System (PRS). Questions are posed to the class to stimulate discussion and indicate how concepts are going over. Students "vote" on answers electronically and their answers are tallied. These PRS are available on the MIT OCW course site. The TEAL version of this course offers a variety of other teaching and learning tools, including a Course Calendar, Readings, Labs, Assignments, and a Discussion Group, where users can discuss with each other the materials presented in this course. MIT OCW presents another version of this topic taught by MIT Professor Walter Lewin, Course 8.02 -- Electricity and Magnetism, Spring 2002, which includes 36 videotaped lectures. Professor Lewin, who is internationally known for his dynamic and engaging lecture style, offers a wealth of content, including Lecture Notes, Problem Sets with solutions, Exams with solutions, links to Related Resources, a separate Discussion Group, and a complete set of Video Lectures, recorded on the MIT campus during Spring 2002. MIT OCW is pleased to offer users access to both of these courses, and the different pedagogical models they present. 2. A Frequently Asked Question ---------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTION: If MIT OCW will always be free and open, why is the Web site now asking users for financial donations? ANSWER: MIT OCW will always be a free and open digital publication. Thanks to the generous support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Andrew Mellon Foundation, MIT OCW has published 1100 courses through Spring 2005. In offering free and open access to these courses, MIT is giving its educational materials to the world, but maintaining these courses, and evolving MIT OCW to meet the needs of our diverse user audience, has its costs. Going forward, $50, $100, or $500 donations from our users will enable us to continue to offer a high-quality publication of MIT's course materials. Giving to MIT OCW is easy. The Giving to MIT Web site is a safe and secure way to financially support MIT OCW: Visit the Giving Site and your gift has been automatically designated to the MIT OCW Fund Hit the Give Now button (similar to the orange button at the top of this page) On the next page, hit the orange Continue button Enter the amount of money, in U.S. Dollars, that you wish to donate Follow the simple steps to send your gift to MIT OCW You can also mail your gift in the form of a personal check to MIT OCW. Make your check payable to "MIT" and enclose a note indicating that the contribution is for the MIT OpenCourseWare Fund #4021100. Send your donation to: Recording Secretary MIT Office of the Treasurer 238 Main Street, Suite 200 Cambridge, MA 02142 3. Johns Hopkins School of Public Health OCW ---------------------------------------------------------------- The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) in Baltimore, MD, is world-renowned as a leading international authority on public health. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Opencourseware project provides access to the school's most popular courses. 4. Utah State University OCW ---------------------------------------------------------------- Utah State University (USU) is one of the nation's premier student-centered land-grant and space-grant universities. USU Opencourseware supports USU's institutional mission to serve the public through learning, discovery, and engagement. 5. Japan OCW Alliance ---------------------------------------------------------------- The top six universities in Japan -- Keio University, Kyoto University, Osaka University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, the University of Tokyo, and Waseda University -- have announced the formation of the Japan OCW Alliance. These six universities now offer open access to close to 100 courses, in both English and Japanese. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 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 jpotts at mit.edu. Our mailing address is MIT OpenCourseWare, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 9-213, Cambridge, MA 02139. MIT does not share subscribers' email addresses and will not send SPAM email. Personally identifiable information about users (name, email address, etc.) will not be made available to third parties. To subscribe a friend to this newsletter, forward the following link: http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/ocw-mail If you choose to not receive the "MIT OpenCourseWare Update" e-newsletter, unsubscribe at: http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/ocw-mail -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ ocw-mail mailing list ocw-mail at mit.edu https://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/ocw-mail