What does the Electoral College landscape look like?
State Delegates Current Poll Averages (Real Clear Politics aggregate) Shift in October in % Points(by most recent individual polls) Florida 29 Romney +1 Romney +3.5 Pennsylvania 20 Obama +4 Romney +4 Ohio 18 Obama +1 Romney +7 Michigan 16 Obama +6 Romney +9 North Carolina 15 Romney +3 Romney +6 Virginia 13 Tie Romney +5 Missouri 10 Romney +5 No Change Wisconsin 10 Obama +5 Romney +9 Colorado 9 Romney +0.5 Romney +3.5 Iowa 6 Obama +3 Romney +2 Nevada 6 Obama +1 Romney +3 New Hampshire 4 Obama +4.5 Romney +6 TOTAL DELEGATES 156 (270 needed to win) Likely/Lean Obama (all states): 217 (53 to go) Likely/Lean Romney (all states): 181 (89 to go)
EdX needs vision
EdX, MIT’s online learning platform, has a lot of things going for it.
The solution to arrogance: humility
While I agree with the spirit and overall theme of Feras Saad’s article, “The arrogance of freshmen” (i.e. that taking advantage of opportunities at MIT is more important than the fact that you got in here), several sentences had a tone that belied another form of arrogance. The worst was, “ … taking four classes a semester and getting A’s … is not much to brag about, but taking the initiative to research with professors or intern in industry certainly is,” followed closely by, “One can take four classes a semester and cruise through an MIT degree by junior year.”
A new kind of classroom
With the evolution of massive open online course (MOOC) and online learning, in the near future students will no longer need a lecture to learn material. We are already seeing the beginning of this trend; independent learners can teach themselves in an online environment and receive immediate feedback. This represents a major change in model of education. Teachers are no longer the gatekeepers of knowledge and students can take charge of their own educations. The democratizing of knowledge will completely reshape the classroom. When students no longer need to come to lecture to learn the material, what role does the classroom have in education? Where is the added value?
Reagan/Carter debate, 2.0
Chris Matthews looked like he was about to have a meltdown: “What was Romney doing? He was WINNING,” he yelled after what had roundly been viewed as a resounding win for Governor Romney in the first presidential debate on Wednesday evening. Echoing Matthews was a chorus of negative reviews by political pundits on the left:
Childcare — a gift for the MIT family
As students and researchers, we often fall into the trap of disproportionately offering critique over praise and expressing misgivings over thanks. Regardless of whether this is some unavoidable part of human nature or a result of admissions selecting for overly critical creative thinkers, we must all make an improved effort to recognize instances of selfless philanthropy, compassionate leadership, and keen foresight and offer high praise where it is due. It was with great excitement and optimism that we read The Tech’s article breaking news of the new daycare facility at 219 Vassar to open in less than a year’s time. Though David Koch’s and Charles and Jennifer Johnson’s building will never host a cure to cancer or solution to the energy crisis, it will deliver in two equally critical ways which the Institute desperately needs right now:
The arrogance of freshmen
Playing pingpong reveals a lot about the players at the table. I was involved in an intense game with a group of freshmen when we lost track of whose turn it was to serve. After some arithmetic to clear up the confusion, one freshman declared, “I am a math major,” with a haughty smirk sprawled across his face.
CORRECTIONS
An article on Friday, Sept. 21 about faculty involvement with the MIT 2030 plan incorrectly stated that one of two new MIT building projects is an expansion of the Central Utilities Plant, replacing Building 41. That project is instead an Energy/Environment building at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Vassar St., adjacent to Building 41. Its infrastructure needs (along with other campus development) may lead to a future replacement of building 41 with an extension of the Central Utilities Plant.
The soccer intramural system needs serious reform
The MIT Athletics Department runs a year-round soccer intramural program where MIT clubs, societies, and dorms register teams to compete against each other in different tournaments. While this arrangement is, in theory, intended to bolster community ties and act as a sanctuary from the rigors of academic life at MIT, its blatant mismanagement means the benefits of intramurals remain largely unrealized.
CORRECTIONS
An infographic accompanying Tuesday’s article about the Advanced Standing Exams mislabeled the 8.02 bar with “8.01.”
The Benghazi boondoggle
It is the morning of September 11, 2012. Things seem to be looking up for President Obama — a slew of polls has come out showing that the President maintains a lead in a handful of swing states he will need to win come November. Today is the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and to commemorate this solemn occasion President Obama is heading off to Las Vegas for a ritzy fundraiser. Of course with the good domestic news on his mind the President doesn’t attend his daily intelligence briefing — this will be the sixth straight day that he has not been personally briefed. That can, of course, come later. Osama Bin Laden is dead after all, what could possibly go wrong, especially on 9/11? Since his inauguration, the president has attended the Presidential Daily Brief approximately 44 percent of the time, even less in the last year and a half.
MIT should create an education degree
MIT has been leading the way in education longer than many of us might realize. TEAL, implemented about a decade ago, lowered the fail rate of 8.01 and 8.02, the freshman physics classes, by embracing a much more engaging style of learning. This is consistent with research that finds that, of all possible teaching styles, students retain the least when lectured to. More recently, MIT decided to take charge of the movement towards online education by creating MITx, which soon became EdX. Although MIT has focused on college-level education, much of what it’s done is still applicable to K-12 education.
The duties of moderate Muslims
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula or “Sam Bacile,” the man behind the blasphemous YouTube video that has set the Islamic world on fire, may be a twisted man but it is only naive to demand his arrest, and delusional to believe that it would be any sort of a fix to the real problem.
Letters to the Editor
Before I begin, I would like to join with The Tech, Austin Brinson, and Alec Lai in welcoming the residential life area directors (RLADs) to campus, and emphasize that my grievances and concerns are with the process and other actors, not with the people who have been hired for the RLAD position.
Demanding details
Last week, as Mitt Romney called a press conference to control the damage from the “47 percent” video, his campaign staff was worried for three reasons.
CORRECTIONS
A page 13 headline published last Friday misstated the size of MIT’s deferred maintenance backlog. It is $2.4 billion, not $4 billion.
Living up to MIT’s land grant commitment
150 years ago this summer, the U.S. Congress passed a bill introduced by Vermont representative Justin Morrill, which provided for “the endowment, support and maintenance of colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts.” Shortly thereafter, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act into law, ushering in the development of one of our nation’s greatest achievements — the nation’s land-grant colleges and universities, the precursors to today’s public higher education system. From the great public institutions of the upper Midwest (think the Big 10 and Big 12) to the University of California system, the Morrill Act called on the states to provide colleges where the “industrial classes” (had Mr. Morrill introduced this bill today he would have likely written “middle class”) could pursue a “liberal and practical education” in the agricultural and mechanical arts. The intent is excerpted from the original Morrill Act:
CORRECTIONS
An article published Tuesday about Peer2Peer incorrectly listed Nightline’s hours as 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. — it is actually 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.