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 ...
Libertarian does not equal libertine.
“Libertarian does not equal libertine.”
Philosophically speaking, I would agree with you. In practice, though, the two terms tend to be synonymous.
I agree. I watched Strang's first lecture. It was very easy to follow and usually anticipate where he was going. He reminds me of my favorite professor in college (an MIT grad) who made advanced calculus and differential equations a breeze.
“In practice, though, the two terms tend to be synonymous.”
The Founding Fathers were the best example of true Libertarian thinkers.
“The Founding Fathers were the best example of true Libertarian thinkers.”
Agreed. Things started heading downhill once libertarians started listening to Ayn Rand too much.
Great resources for homeschoolers!!!!
This is indeed the Killer App of the Internet.
That’s a great way of portraying it.
Can’t multiply two matrices? Keep trying, it’s good for preventing or slowing brain atrophy in old age.
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