MIT OpenCourseWare – free courses on the web!
So you’ve heard of MIT right? Otherwise known as the Massachusetts Institute of Techonology, it’s one of the most respected and renowed science and technology institutes in the world, let’s just call it brilliant boffin-land. It’s any scientist techno-geek’s dream university and the best news is that you can now access the MIT coursework online for FREE!
Wikipedia gives us the official profile:
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private, coeducational research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on theoretical, applied, and interdisciplinary scientific and technological research. MIT is one of two private land-grant universities as well as a sea-grant and space-grant university.
MIT’s endowment and annual research expenditures are among the largest of any American university. MIT graduates and faculty are noted for their technical acumen (63 Nobel Laureates and 29 MacArthur Fellows as of October 2006), entrepreneurial spirit (a 1997 report claimed that the aggregated revenues of companies founded by MIT affiliates would make it the twenty-fourth largest economy in the world) and irreverence.
SO anyway, MIT have now made most of their course material available online under their MIT OPENCOURSEWARE program:
MIT OCW’s goals are to:
- Provide free, searchable, access to MIT’s course materials for educators, students, and self-learners around the world.
- Extend the reach and impact of MIT OCW and the “opencourseware” concept.
Here are the departments you can access:
- Aeronautics and Astronautics
- Anthropology
- Architecture
- Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation
- Biological Engineering
- Biology
- Brain and Cognitive Sciences
- Chemical Engineering
- Chemistry
- Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Comparative Media Studies
- Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
- Economics
- Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
- Engineering Systems Division
- Experimental Study Group
- Foreign Languages and Literatures
- Health Sciences and Technology
- History
- Linguistics and Philosophy
- Literature
- Materials Science and Engineering
- Mathematics
- Mechanical Engineering
- Media Arts and Sciences
- Music and Theater Arts
- Nuclear Science and Engineering
- Physics
- Political Science
- Science, Technology, and Society
- Sloan School of Management
- Special Programs
- Urban Studies and Planning
- Women’s Studies
- Writing and Humanistic Studies
And the information is incredible – we dipped our toe into “Sloan School of Management” and then chose a course on “Management Communication for graduates” and managed to have a look at the teacher’s notes for Teamwork Basics and found this very interesting bit on “Hints for Handling Difficult Behavior”
Just one difficult personality in a group can make the group unproductive and the teamwork experience unpleasant.
Here are some suggestions for resolving problems:
Overly Talkative
This person is usually one of four types: (a) an “eager beaver”; (b) a show-off; (c) very well- informed and anxious to show it; (d) unable to read the responses of others and use the feedback to monitor his/her own behavior.
Sometimes humor can be used to dis-courage people from dominating the discussion; be sure when the person stops talking to direct the conversation to another person.
If the person’s behavior can’t be changed subtly, one member of the group should speak to the person privately and explain that while his/her enthusiasm is appreciated, it’s only fair to the whole group that every person gets an equal amount of air time.
Too quiet
The quiet person may be: shy, bored, tired, unsure of himself/ herself, uninvolved in the group.
Make a special effort to draw this person out: ask for his/her opinion on something; ask him/her something about himself/her-self; tell the person you appreciate his/her participation.
Argues
Is the person critical of ideas, the group process, or other group members?
If the person is critical of ideas, use that response to test the work the group is doing–the person may be providing good feedback. If he/she is critical of others, tell him/her how the effect that is having on both the team or individual team members. Be explicit about the fact that his/her behavior is detrimental to the goals of the team.
Complains
The person may have a pet peeve, or may complain for the sake of complaining.
Listen to the person’s complaint; if it is legitimate, set aside group time to solve the problem. Point out that part of your work this semester is to learn how to solve problems. Ask the person to join with you to improve whatever is disturb- ing him/her.
SO COME ON – EXPAND YOUR MIND! Represent!
