От: ocw-mail@mit.edu
Отправлено: 25 февраля 2005 г. 20:04
Кому: ocw-mail@mit.edu
Тема: The MIT OpenCourseWare Update -- Vol. 3, Issue 2
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The MIT OpenCourseWare Update: February 2005

A Monthly E-mail Newsletter for Users
and Friends of MIT OpenCourseWare
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The February 2005 MIT OpenCourseWare Update Contains:
1. Content Partners Offer Users Unique Learning Tools
2. Foundations, Donors Fuel MIT OCW Success
3. Digging Deeper: Course 3.46
4. A Frequently Asked Question
5. Comments
6. Newsletter Available Online at http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/AboutOCW/newsletter.htm



1. Content Partners Offer Users Unique Learning Tools
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MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) has several content partners who are providing users translations of MIT OCW courses and other tools to improve their learning experience.

Universia.net is a consortium of more than 800 colleges and universities in Latin America, Spain and Portugal that has translated a sample of MIT OCW courses into Spanish and Portuguese. Headquartered in Madrid, Spain, Universia has now translated more than 90 courses and continues to publish new translations, including courses such as Course 21A.219 -- Law and Society, Spring 2003 in Spanish, and Course 9.641J -- Introduction to Neural Networks, Fall 2002 in Portuguese.

Chinese Open Resources for Education (CORE) is a consortium of Chinese colleges and universities that will translate all of MIT OCW's courses into Chinese, and offer open and free access to the course materials from Chinese educators, over the course of the next five years. Thus far, CORE offers two complete, translated MIT courses, including Course 18.06 -- Linear Algebra, Fall 2002 and Course 18.085 -- Mathematical Methods for Engineers I, Fall 2002.

Open Learning Support (OLS) is a joint MIT OCW/ Utah State University research project focused on building "social software" that enables informal learning communities to form around existing open educational content. The fundamental premise of OLS is that full educational opportunity requires a user to have social access to other human beings who can answer questions and provide support.


2. Foundations, Donors Fuel MIT OCW Success
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MIT OCW would not be possible with the generous financial support of the Hewlett and the Mellon Foundations, in addition to several MIT alumni who have made financial donations to help us publish 915 courses.

The Willam and Flora Hewlett Foundation has generously supported MIT OCW financially through the initial pilot phase and continues to to provide funding as MIT OCW works toward full publication of all of MIT's courses. Headquartered in Menlo Park, CA, the foundation concentrates its resources on activities in conflict resolution, education, environment, performing arts, population, and U.S.-Latin American relations.

MIT OCW has also received wonderful financial support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The New York, NY-based foundation is active in higher education, museums and art conservation, performing arts, population, conservation and the environment, and public affairs, and is committed to the concept of open sharing of educational resources and tools, such as MIT OCW.

In addition, MIT alumnus Jon Gruber has donated $1 million to the MIT OCW project. Gruber's gift will support the development and open publication of course materials in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - his undergraduate major - and also in MIT's various programs in the visual arts. Voluntary donations by MIT alumni and our users is a wonderful endorsement of what this project hopes to achieve long-term - promoting open sharing of information and knowledge that will democratize information and make the world a better place. If you choose to support MIT OCW financially, please make your check payable to "MIT" and enclose a note indicating that the contribution is for the OpenCourseWare Fund, #4021100. You can mail your check to:
Recording Secretary
MIT Office of the Treasurer
238 Main Street, Suite 200
Cambridge, MA 02142

You can support donate through the Giving to MIT Web site at http://web.mit.edu/giving. Utilize the site's secure, online giving form at https://alum.mit.edu/giftform/GiftMain.dyn. When filling out the form, the MIT OCW fund number is 4021100, and the official fund name is "OpenCourseWare."


3. Digging Deeper: Course 3.46
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MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering is known as the world-wide leader of its field, based on its academic program, its highly regarded faculty, and the high caliber of its students.

There are currently 36 courses from MIT's DMSE available on MIT OCW, including this month's featured course, Professor Lionel Kimerling's Course 3.46 - Photonic Materials and Devices, Spring 2004, which explores covers the theory, design, fabrication and applications of photonic materials and devices. After a survey of optical materials design for semiconductors, dielectrics and polymers, the course examines ray optics, electromagnetic optics and guided wave optics; physics of light-matter interactions; and device design principles of LEDs, lasers, photodetectors, modulators, fiber and waveguide interconnects, optical filters, and photonic crystals. Device processing topics include crystal growth, substrate engineering, thin film deposition, etching and process integration for dielectric, silicon and compound semiconductor materials.

Professor Kimerling offers a comprehensive set of Lecture Notes, on such topics as Ray Optics, Electromagnetic Optics, Guided Wave Optics, Semiconductor Photo Detectors, and Laser Diodes.

Course 3.46 also offers a rich set of Problem Sets, and six past quizzes along with a final exam, featuring such mind-benders as the following question: "Explain the differences in the gain spectrum between a double heterostructure laser and a quantum well laser. Which is more desirable and why?" Whew! Let the self-learning begin!

The course also offers a guide to the design process, including four sample design reviews, and a sample of Professor Kimerling's comments on the design review process.


4. A Frequently Asked Question
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QUESTION: Can I download MIT OCW videos to my computer for viewing off-line?
ANSWER: Most of the video that MIT OCW provides is in a Real Video format delivered through streaming servers. Our goal in providing video in this format (in multiple bitrates) is to enable users with a variety of Internet connections to sample MIT OCW video offerings with a common browser plug-in without having to download large media files. Users are able to download our streaming video file if you prefer to play these files off-line. There are two  typical URL structures for links to MIT OCW video lecture delivered in a streaming format:





This same basic approach will work for all the MIT OCW streaming videos stored on the Internet Archive network. Simply find the URL to the streaming media file and replace the word "stream" with the word "download."


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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@mit.edu. Our mailing address is MIT OpenCourseWare, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 9-213, Cambridge, MA 02139.

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