Abstract:

Nowadays Web browsers are the most common computer interface used for self learning. Modern web-based technologies offer an impressive potential for developing educational tools. Astronomy is particularly popular among young students and the general public, and it should take advantage from the latest internet technologies to become even more attractive.

In the framework of the GLORIA (GLObal Robotic-telescopes Intelligent Array) project, we present an overview of what we believe are the best web technologies that can be applied to build educational tools. We show with a step-by-step code tutorial how this result can be achieved.

We also present these concepts in two websites for educational purposes. The first one uses real images of the Sun taken during the last transit of Venus (2012-06-05). Students can use these images to calculate the Sun-Earth distance. The second one provides real meteorological data taken in Australia during the last total solar eclipse (2012-11-13) and it allows to interactively calculate the time lag between observed changes in luminosity and ambient temperature.

Keywords:

GLORIA project, Astronomy, Web 2.0.