Hi all-
I forward this as an item of general interest. I haven't looked at
any of the materials, but the materials offered might make a fruitful
topic for discussion.
Regards,
Jack
--
"Don't push the river, it flows by itself"
Frederick Perls
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Dear MIT Alumnus/ae,
Today, MIT is announcing the publication of 500 courses through the MIT OpenCourseWare initiative. MIT OCW offers free and open access to the educational materials from all 33 of the Institute's academic disciplines and all five of its schools. This milestone represents a significant technical and organizational achievement for the Institute, the first on the way to publishing virtually all of MIT's courses online.
Making good on the promise of open sharing of knowledge and educational materials first announced to much media publicity in April 2001, MIT OCW allows educators and learners around the world the ability to download syllabi, lecture notes, exams, student projects and video lectures from 500 courses. All that is required of adopters of the materials is that the use be non-commercial, that the original MIT faculty authors receive attribution if the materials are republished or reposted online, and that adapters openly share the materials in the same manner as MIT OCW.
"We see OCW as opening a new door to the democratizing and transforming power of education," said MIT President Charles M. Vest. "We hope the idea of openly sharing course materials will propagate throughout many institutions and create a global web of knowledge that will enhance the quality of learning and, therefore, the quality of life worldwide."
The project has a dual mission: to provide free, searchable access to virtually all MIT course materials for educators, students, and individual learners around the world; and to create an efficient, standards-based model that other universities may emulate to publish their own educational materials.
To learn more about MIT OCW, log onto the Web site at http://ocw.mit.edu.