This is excerpted from MIT's website, where the new TEAL program uses high-tech classrooms and lots of in-class experiments to enhance the teaching of physics:
MIT Introductory Physics is a fundamental underpinning of a technical education, but the material is difficult for students to master. It is a subject in which mathematical complexity can quickly overwhelm physical intuition.
We are developing a prototype for a reform of physics education at MIT which is designed to help students develop much better intuition about, and conceptual models of, physical phenomena. This reform is centered on an "active learning" approach -- that is, a highly collaborative, hands-on environment, with extensive use of desktop experiments and educational technology.
The basic plan is to merge lecture, recitations, and hands-on laboratory experience into a technologically and collaboratively rich experience for incoming freshmen. Students will gather in groups of nine, with twelve or so such groups in a common area, for five hours per week. The students will be exposed to a mixture of instruction, laboratory work with desktop experiments, and collaborative work in smaller groups of three, in a computer rich environment (one networked laptop per three students, with data acquisition links between laptop and experiments). The desktop experiments and computer-aided analysis of experimental data will give the students direct experience with the basic phenomena. Formal and informal instruction, aided by media-rich interactive software for simulation and visualization, will then aid students in their conceptualization of this experience.
OK, here are a few things that have already been said, but seem to be eluding people:
This was not an action by an MIT student. The debate on whether this is ethically hypocritical is silly, because this was not an academic activity. It was wrong to use the image, but it's not as if this was "Create an image of a soldier" class. People have already made this comment, but it seems like no one is reading it.
Also, it seems like everyone is assuming that this picture was the deciding factor in the grant proposal. This is obviously not the case. In order to get $50 million from the Army, MIT had to show actual proof of their ability to deliver technological advancement. And the Army isn't stupid. They didn't look at the pretty picture and say, "Oooh! Look! Let's give them the money, that looks cool!"
Lastly, I am a student at MIT, and I feel insulted by people posting things like "the I go to MIT I am above everyone else attitude that is true of 99% of MIT students." This is not true. If you want snobs who think they're better, go look at Harvard.
Slashdot Mirror
This is excerpted from MIT's website, where the new TEAL program uses high-tech classrooms and lots of in-class experiments to enhance the teaching of physics:
MIT
Introductory Physics is a fundamental underpinning of a technical education, but the material is difficult for students to master. It is a subject in which mathematical complexity can quickly overwhelm physical intuition.
We are developing a prototype for a reform of physics education at MIT which is designed to help students develop much better intuition about, and conceptual models of, physical phenomena. This reform is centered on an "active learning" approach -- that is, a highly collaborative, hands-on environment, with extensive use of desktop experiments and educational technology.
The basic plan is to merge lecture, recitations, and hands-on laboratory experience into a technologically and collaboratively rich experience for incoming freshmen. Students will gather in groups of nine, with twelve or so such groups in a common area, for five hours per week. The students will be exposed to a mixture of instruction, laboratory work with desktop experiments, and collaborative work in smaller groups of three, in a computer rich environment (one networked laptop per three students, with data acquisition links between laptop and experiments).
The desktop experiments and computer-aided analysis of experimental data will give the students direct experience with the basic phenomena. Formal and informal instruction, aided by media-rich interactive software for simulation and visualization, will then aid students in their conceptualization of this experience.
OK, here are a few things that have already been said, but seem to be eluding people: This was not an action by an MIT student. The debate on whether this is ethically hypocritical is silly, because this was not an academic activity. It was wrong to use the image, but it's not as if this was "Create an image of a soldier" class. People have already made this comment, but it seems like no one is reading it. Also, it seems like everyone is assuming that this picture was the deciding factor in the grant proposal. This is obviously not the case. In order to get $50 million from the Army, MIT had to show actual proof of their ability to deliver technological advancement. And the Army isn't stupid. They didn't look at the pretty picture and say, "Oooh! Look! Let's give them the money, that looks cool!" Lastly, I am a student at MIT, and I feel insulted by people posting things like "the I go to MIT I am above everyone else attitude that is true of 99% of MIT students." This is not true. If you want snobs who think they're better, go look at Harvard.