"JPG" wrote in message


The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have decided to make all their
course materials available to the public.

http://www.ocw.mit.edu/index.html

Especially of note to USW are the courses on Earth, atmospheric, and planetary
sciences.

I don't think it is such a big deal. The OU output is readily available
on the TV for anyone with a free time table and a video recorder to
access. Have you seen the number of search engines that are available as
add-ons for the Firefox browser?

Most largish libraries carry university courses for those who want to
trouble themselves with an education. The biggest problem with all these
things is not the availability of tutors to help you understand, that
can be catered for on the net at any amount of newsgroups. Nor is it a
problem working alone. Well it is, but at least you are not distracted
by college life.

The biggest problem is that you don't get the cachet that "going to MIT"
ads to your CV.

This is what the internet should be about, the corpus of human wisdom
available free to all - Met Office take note (although they are on the
right track.)

The MetO are constrained by Thatcherism are they not? They have to make
money by law, on the public info they have. Or has that changed under
Blairlessness?




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