The membership of the committee is Hal Abelson (EECS), Peter
Donaldson (Literature), Greg Jackson (IS), Bob Jaffe (Physics),
Chris Kemerer (Sloan), Dick Larson (EECS), Bill Mitchell
(Architecture and Planning), Tony Patera (ME), and Paul
Penfield, chair (EECS). This is a great bunch of people,
but, being nine in number, all of us busy, we will have to
stretch the concept of "calendar permitting" to be able to
meet.
Name: The first thing we need is a name for the committee.
I propose the following:
"Ad hoc committee on Education Via Advanced Technology"
or "EVAT" for short. Unless one or more of you hollars at
me, that name will probably stick.
Charge: The next thing we need is a charge. I have written
the following, based on the constraints Joel Moses gave me:
Investigate the opportunities offered by advanced technology
to the delivery of education. Recommend a course of action
to the President of MIT. The specific technologies to be
considered include, but are not necessarily restricted to,
the following:
The Internet and the World Wide Web
CD-ROMs
Hypertext and hypermedia
Multimedia
Personal portable computation and communication
What do you think of this as a charge? Please let me know.
Time: We are supposed to be done in no more than two
months, i.e., by the end of this semester. Is this
possible? Maybe. Let's try.
Support: My secretary, Vera Sayzew, 3-4624, vera@eecs.mit.edu,
will serve as support staff for the committee.
So welcome on board. Vera will be calling you shortly to
set up our first meeting. ..../Paul