Teachers- Open Courseware or courseware that generates lessons and materials on demand is a direction education and technology is going to take us. In the rapidly changing world teachers are going to need their lessons and courses to change and be updated at a rapid rate. I think MIT open Courseware is a glimpse at the future!
OCW Website
In 2001, MIT began the OpenCourseWare (OCW) initiative, which took the materials associated with MIT courses (i.e. syllabi, video lectures, problems sets, exam questions, etc.) and posted them online. For anybody in the world to access. For free. (No, that’s not a typo). In 2007, OpenCourseWare published its 1800th course, which represents virtually the entire MIT curriculum. These 1800 courses feature 15,000 lecture notes, 9,000 problem sets, and 900 exams. Please watch this video for more information.
 Student built electric guitar
Building upon the success of OpenCourseWare, MIT was inspired to extend the idea to secondary school. The Highlights for High School (HFH) website is aimed at high school teachers and students, with a primary focus on the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The site features the thousands of resources from introductory MIT courses on the OpenCourseWare site, mapped to the AP topic
framework, and is available to students, teachers and parents, again completely free of charge. In addition the site features fun and engaging classes created by MIT students for high school students that range from furniture making to robotics, and a guide to many introductory courses on OCW. The site has logged over 200,000 visitors since its launch in late 2007. Furniture Making
 It is important to note that OCW and Highlights are not distance learning in the classic sense - users are not able to obtain MIT credit after using the site. Rather, the goal is to provide free, high quality educational resources for use by teachers, students, and self-learners. Resources are browsable by topic, and there is a robust search function allowing one to search for resources across the entire site, or just a section.
Teachers can use the materials on the Highlights site to:
· Find video and audio clips to show in their classes
· Find practice problems and exam questions for use in their classes
· Find videotaped demonstrations they can’t perform in their own classes
· Brush up on content knowledge – many teachers are forced to teach out of area and haven’t studied the subject for some time
· Analyze other teachers’ syllabi to see how they structure and teach topics
· Watch other teachers teach
· Lead their advanced students to extra credit materials
Students can use the materials on the Highlights site to:
· Learn more about college and college majors in Science, Engineering and Math
· Find alternate explanations for topics they are studying
· Find practice problems and study materials
· Learn for learning’s sake
Visit the Highlights for High Schoolsite, and don’t hesitate to send them feedback!
Written by: Cheryl Siegel, Department Liaison, Highlights for High School OpenCourseWare
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