| | | | So You Want to Be a Video Star ... on a Mission? |
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Pretty much all kids have a natural curiosity about the world—how things are put together, how they work—but somehow in the course of many kids’ education this natural inquisitiveness and sense of wonder gets squelched, and kids end up intimated or bored by science and engineering.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could help change this?
Students taking 20.219 Becoming the Next Bill Nye: Writing and Hosting the Educational Show aspire to do just that. In three short weeks, they create and star in their own educational videos.
We all know that there are lots of educational videos already in the world, and students in 20.219 must quickly suss out the difference between what makes one engaging and effective, and another not so much.
The lead instructors of the course are Elizabeth Choe and Jaime Goldstein. Choe, a colleague of the folks at OCW in MIT’s Office of Digital Learning, has plenty of experience helping MIT students make science videos in her video series Science Out Loud. Goldstein is an instructor in the Communication Lab of MIT’s Department of Biological Engineering.
What Goes into Making a Good Video?
The OCW course site is bursting with video resources. All class sessions were video-recorded, including lectures, discussions, and workshops. Guest lecturers include George Zaidan (the creative force behind OCW’s reality video series ChemLab Boot Camp), Chris Boebel (co-teacher of MIT’s 21A.550J DV Lab: Documenting Science through Video and New Media), Joshua Gunn, founder of the animation studio Planet Nutshell, and Natalie Kuldell, President of the Biobuilder Education Foundation. The topics cover the entire gamut of video production, from scripting, table-reading, and hosting to filming, audio, and editing. Naturally, the course emphasizes pre-production—coming up with a good script and creating a compelling visual narrative.
Who’s Watching?
The videos created in this class are aimed at middle schoolers, the kids whose natural curiosity hangs in the balance.
> Read the complete article
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 | | A Frisbee® featuring a flow network was tossed out during lectures to reward class participation. (Photo courtesy of Prof. Devadas) |
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Algorithms Are Blooming on OCW
When it comes to algorithms, OCW has an undeniable embarrassment of riches.
The latest algorithmic bloom is 6.046J Design and Analysis of Algorithms as taught in spring 2015 by Professors Erik Demaine, Srinivas Devadas, and Nancy Lynch.
Anyone who has spent time exploring OCW’s collection of courses from the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department will recognize Professor Demaine, whose name appears on nine OCW course sites. Professor Devadas is another OCW champion, with five active course sites. He has just been honored by MIT for his distinguished teaching as a MacVicar Fellow. 6.046J marks the second OCW course by Professor Lynch (6.852J Distributed Algorithms is the other).
The 6.046J course site is bursting with resources, with full video lectures and lecture notes, full recitation (problem-solving) videos and notes, assignments and solutions, and exams and solutions.
> Read the complete article |
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Highlights for High School |
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 | | Image by Sarina Canelake. Used with permission. |
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| In President Obama’s last State of the Union address, he talked about adding hands-on computer science classes for all students to make them “job ready on day one.” He created a plan called Computer Science for All that devotes significant funding to help public schools increase the quality and quantity of their offerings in STEM fields. President Obama considers programming a “new basic” skill.
Given the urgency of the President’s plans, we urge you to head to Highlights for High School’s section on Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, where we have lots of fun resources like: |
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 | | Click the above image for more details about 15.662x Shaping the Future of Work |
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| MOOCs for the socially conscious learner
You may think of MITx for its STEM-focused MOOCs (science, technology, engineering, and math), but this spring, MITx is offering something different – a chance to explore topics in business, economics, and social issues. If you’re interested in making the world a better place and understanding some of the underlying issues of today’s biggest global challenges, register now for a few of our upcoming courses. Shaping the Future of Work (15.662x) – starting March 28th
How can we make sure that people around the world have access to good jobs? It’s a big question, but an important one to solve for our future. This course will help you understand today’s labor market and what we can do to improve it.
Just Money: Banking as if Society Mattered (11.405x) – starting April 19th
Do you know what banks do with your money? This brand new MOOC will help you understand the role of banks in the economy and introduce you to the concept of a “just bank,” which uses banking to promote social and economic well-being.
Evaluating Social Programs (JPAL101x) – starting May 2
This 5-week workshop from MIT’s well-known Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab teaches you how to evaluate the social impact of development programs and why evaluations matter in this discipline. It’s an excellent opportunity for anyone working in human services, international aid, development or social entrepreneurship to gain key skills for driving programs forward.
Sign up now for one of these MOOCs and join a global community of like-minded individuals. |
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Views From Our Supporters |
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 | | "Taken in the Los Padres Mountains, while I was still hiking, climbing and backpacking. I was in pain, but not yet completely debilitated from the MS." |
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"Your story about the young man with cancer reminded me a little of why MIT OpenCourseWare is so important to me.
My passion for college was kindled at age two, watching my father study for his Master's and attending his graduation.
I started college in 1974.
First it was illness, then having to move (I always enrolled in another college), then illness, then moving... this went on for many years. When I lived too far away from any college, I would order textbooks from the nearest traveling library. Then my mother's illness became terminal and required my services 24 hours a day, right after I passed my board exams and finished my internship- a long way to go for a doctorate.
But it was the first step on a long ladder. I had well over 70 CMEs and CUEs in medicine. But not being in practice, they were of no use except to keep my dream alive.
I had known for a long time I probably had M.S. but tried to ignore it for more important things, but long story shorter, I became bed-bound and because my once high functioning intellect was as debilitated as my body and I was trying to live on welfare, college was out of the question.
I had changed my major from medicine to theoretical and particle physics figuring I could do most of that in bed, but I could not afford the few colleges offering classes in such online.
Then I found MIT Open Course Ware. It was free, fabulous classes, and I could continue at my now slow pace. What a gift!
Thank you to all that make these classes possible, and keeping our dreams alive for folks like us. I may not make it to the doctorate, But as I said at age two- "I will NEVER stop learning"! Thank all of you for making that possible!"
- Susan, Independent Learner > Read more
Tell us what you think of OCW here. |
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