Archive for April 9th, 2008

News about MIT’s OpenCourseWare project

April 9th, 2008 by Lynne O'Brien

A recent newsletter from the MIT OpenCourseWare project includes this information.

As a permanent part of the MIT academic program, OCW continues to publish about 200 courses per year –– dozens of new courses that are introduced at MIT each semester, as well as updates to courses already on OCW. Here are some examples of what is happening in 2008:

  • More than 50 new courses, including brand new courses from Health Sciences and Technology, Sloan School of Management, Literature, and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

  • About 150 redesigned and refreshed courses from departments like Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Chemistry, and Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

  • New video lectures for courses in Mathematics, Biological Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and the Engineering Systems Division –– Note: MIT is in the process of adding video subtitles and transcripts to improve access for hearing impaired users.

  • OCW audio and video on distribution channels such as YouTube and iTunes U

  • Expanded content in the new Highlights for High School section of OCW

  • New pages that link OCW courses to key MIT initiatives in energy and the environment.

To see these items or learn more about OCW, visit their website (http://ocw.mit.edu).

I’d be interested in knowing whether faculty and students at Duke would be interested in having course content openly available in ways similar to the MIT project. What would be the pro’s and cons’ of distributing course material publicly?

 

Flickr adds video

April 9th, 2008 by Randy Riddle

“It’s like a photo, but it moves!”

Flickr, the popular service for sharing photos, has now added video capabilities to the site. The video uploads aren’t intended to replace or duplicate YouTube - the length is limited to 90 seconds - but as a way to augment user image collections with short videos taken with their digital camera. For example, users might have a photo set devoted to an event and the video would give a short interview or footage that gives a flavor of what the event was like. Videos can also be embedded in web pages or blog posts, similar to YouTube content.

Sample videos from the Flickr beta group

Article at techcrunch on differences between FlickrVideo and YouTube

Blog post with thoughts about the service


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