Posted on 12/30/2007 1:02:43 AM PST by Aristotelian
Gilbert Strang is a quiet man with a rare talent: helping others understand linear algebra. He's written a half-dozen popular college textbooks, and for years a few hundred students at the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been privileged to take his course.
Recently, with the growth of computer science, demand to understand linear algebra has surged. But so has the number of students Strang can teach.
An MIT initiative called "OpenCourseWare" makes virtually all the school's courses available online for free — lecture notes, readings, tests and often video lectures. Strang's Math 18.06 course is among the most popular, with visitors downloading his lectures more than 1.3 million times since June alone.
(snip)
More than 100 universities worldwide, including Johns Hopkins, Tufts and Notre Dame, have joined MIT in a consortium of schools promoting their own open courseware. You no longer need a Princeton ID to hear the prominent guests who speak regularly on campus, just an Internet connection. This month, Yale announced it would make material from seven popular courses available online, with 30 more to follow.
As with many technology trends, new services and platforms are driving change. Last spring marked the debut of "iTunes U," a section of Apple's popular music and video downloading service now publicly hosting free material from 28 colleges. Meanwhile, the University of California, Berkeley recently announced it would be the first to make full course lectures available on YouTube. Berkeley was already posting lectures, but YouTube has dramatically expanded their reach.
If there isn't yet something for everyone, it's only a matter of time. On iTunes, popular recent downloads include a climate change panel at Stanford, lectures on existentialism by Cal-Berkeley professor Hubert Dreyfus, and a performance of Mozart's requiem by the Duke Chapel Choir. Berkeley's offerings include 48 classes.
http://ocw.mit.edu
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I'm still trying to understand cubic zirconium.
Rochester's only 65 miles away but it would be a real hardship to try and commute there evenings after work in Buffalo and there's no degree offered locally that can match RIT's. Exciting times we live in.
saving
This will be a boon for homeschoolers.
Gabz, SoftballMominVA, and I have volunteered to take over the list so that Metmom can concentrate on home schooling issues.
If you want on or off this ping list, please Freepmail SoftballMominVA who is this month’s official keeper of the list
If I may also suggest
The Teaching Company
http://www.teach12.com/teach12.asp?ref=fromSecure
The Teaching Company brings engaging professors into your home or car through courses on DVD, audio CD, and other formats. Since 1990, great teachers from the Ivy League, Stanford, Georgetown, and other leading colleges and universities have crafted over 250 courses for lifelong learners like you. It’s the adventure of learning without the homework or exams.
I met Dr. Strang when he visited UT. His lecture on applied mathematics was great. After the talk he signed my copy of his textbook. When I teach Linear Algebra, I mimic his approach to the subject. He can make difficult mathematics easy to understand. You are correct, he is a great teacher.
It only took me 3 tries to get through linear algebra - mostly because of a friendly instructor. During those 3 quarters I aced the third quarter of calculus and the first quarter of differential equations. Later I aced something they called modern algebra that was actually more of a topology class.
My brain just doesn’t work well in more than 3 dimensions.
Just downloaded their Chemistry videos. Kids are going to start that next week. What a great find.
I'll second that. I'm a major fan of the Teaching Company. Outstanding lecturers and courses and they're constantly adding more. They've provided the education I didn't get in college.
This is a fantastic development.
Degrees mean less and less anyway.
I find this an attractive scenario as long as the destructive forms that libertarianism (Classical Liberalism) can take are managed through Christian ethics and faith.
I agree ... if you're talking about the small "l" libertarianism of the Founders / Framers
HERE bttt
bmflr
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According to Intrade, the winner of the December 12th GOP debate was... Duncan Hunter.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938773/posts
Why the smart money is on Duncan Hunter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1926032/posts
In this poll Hunter is up 3% and even with Paul and Thompson.
http://www.wxyz.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=3481ef60-8195-46a9-af04-b87b907bcfdd
Deja vu. I’m currently listening to some lectures on iTunesU.
The only thing missing is for a university to go ahead and give college credit for other universities online classes taught via podcasting, youtube, etc.
Give it a few years. Universities already charge far too much for the piece of paper. The market is going to come up with an alternative if it’s allowed to do so.
ALSO these courses are a potential resource for home educators! Why pay for an AP class when you can take the actual college course for free, then take the AP exam and test out of it?
“This suggests that libertarian conservatism will overtake progressive liberalism as the political philosophy of choice.”
More than likely. Not entirely a good thing in my view, but I think it’s where things are headed in the long term.
(And before I get myself into an unwanted debate with the various FR libertarians, let’s just say that I find the more libertine aspects of the philosophy to be problematic.)
“This suggests that libertarian conservatism will overtake progressive liberalism as the political philosophy of choice.”
I hope you are right.
Most conservatives are of the big-gov’t school of thought. Instead of a liberal coercive gov’t they want a conservative coercive gov’t.
Freedom is hard. It requires setting up realistic boundaries between individuals and giving up the desire to control others or take something from someone else. Few people these days have a vision for liberty.
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