During the past decade, the massive worldwide conversion of learning content from print and other older media on to digital networks has created gatekeepers who limit access to their digital content or require online users to pay for it.

A variety of gatekeepers have made a third choice:
to open their content freely into the Internet.
These are their stories.

August 1, 2006

An Astronomy Website from the Internet Big Bang
Astronomy Picture of the Day ("APOD"")

Comet Meets Ring Nebula: Part II
Astronomy Picture of the Day, May 12, 2006

Open resources for learning were a fundamental ingredient in the early 1990s when Internet big bang created a vast new universe of virtual knowledge and activity. A stellar example of an open education resource that has exploded into prominence over the past decade along with Internet expansion is Astronomy Picture of the Day (“APOD”).

In cooperation with NASA, on June 16, 1995 two astrophysicists began to post online a daily astronomy picture, giving birth to APOD. The scientists, Robert J. Nemiroff and Jerry T. Bonnell have continued their daily posting for over ten years. The daily pictures are simply scientific information with expert commentary—not classroom oriented. Undoubtedly however, the images have been included in many school lessons. In fact, a page on the APOD website lists comments from classrooms.

Although useful to non-students who have an interest in astronomy, the APOD website is definitely educational. It is almost impossible to drop by without learning something. The quality of the information is first rate and is backed by the authority of its two astrophysicists and of its NASA web host. Conversely, APOD is not meant for nor dependent on education. It is simply knowledge.

APOD is a website that interfaces an open network to its visitors. The APOD’s homepage has a new image every day with text below it linking to related information. When you reach the homepage you are at a node of the APOD network. When you click a blue, highlighted piece of text you move to another node, where you will find links to still further nodes. The network structure of APOD provides context to every image it posts, and in doing so becomes a dynamic education resource open to all learners.

Future education will be devised and executed to take advantages of the networking of excellent online knowledge. The fact that APOD is usually at the top of the list when you google the word "astronomy" indicates a very large peice of the galaxy is already using APOD to learn more about the cosmos.

APOD August 19, 2006 - text from the posting follows:

Ceci n'est pas un Meteore
Credit & Copyright: Laurent Laveder (PhotoAstronomique.net)

Explanation: To paraphrase Magritte, "This is not a meteor". It's not a picture of a meteor either, but it was taken during last weekend's peak of the Perseid Meteor shower. Skywatching with friends at a cosy beach campsite bathed in moonlight at Treguennec, France, astronomer and APOD translator Laurent Laveder planned to record bright Perseid meteors with camera and tripod. While the Perseid meteors he saw were neither numerous nor bright he did capture the brilliant trail of an Iridium communication satellite. His long exposure began after the satellite glint became visible, so the resulting streak does resemble a meteor trail in the final image. Also recognizable in the serene view of sandy beach and starry sky is the famous northern asterism, the Big Dipper.