This learn node connects to six excellent online sources for learning about the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinated Hitler. The learn node was stimulated by the movie Valkyrie, which is based on the actual people and events of the plot. The internet is a new way, in the 21st century, to quickly assemble information about events from virtually any place and any time. If your interest is aroused by seeing the movie — or are teaching or learning about the Nazi resistance — the following links will fill in the facts and characters.
This learn node is about Tycho’s supernova that Brahe saw Nov. 11, 1572. As Yahoo! News reports, Brahe was astonished to see what he thought was a brilliant new star in the constellation Cassiopeia. The light eventually became as bright as Venus and could be seen for two weeks in broad daylight. After 16 months, it disappeared.
This learn node is centered in the 2008 discovery at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of how the dolphin kicks with huge power — something that has been a mystery called Gray’s Paradox. Six nodes emerge from the open internet in this animation, providing connected places to learn about dolphins and their power kick.
The Origins of World War I is a lecture from a Yale University on which this learn node is based. The topic is from the Open Yale course France Since 1871 taught by Professor John Merriman, shown teaching in the image. The 45-minute lecture is offered in transcript, mp3 audio, and Flash or Quicktime video. The course overview explains:
The traditional, diplomatic history of World War I is helpful in understanding how a series of hitherto improbable alliances come to be formed in the early years of the twentieth century. In the case of France and Russia, this involves a significant ideological compromise. Along with the history of imperial machinations, however, World War I should be understood in the context of the popular imagination and the growth of nationalist sentiment in Europe.
Galileo and the Pendulum is a node for learning that is part of a rich cluster and course, The Galileo Project at Connexions. Other sections of the Galileo Project are his biography, family life, the Inquisition, and descriptions of his work on motion, mechanical devices, and the telescope.
Remote sensing imagery and study materials abound on the internet. An excellent cluster of information can be found at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program which “is a multi-laboratory, interagency program, and is a key contributor to national and international research efforts related to global climate change. A primary objective of the program is improved scientific understanding of the fundamental physics related to interactions between clouds and radiative feedback processes in the atmosphere. ARM focuses on obtaining continuous field measurements and providing data products that promote the advancement of climate models.”
To learn scientific and technical background for the field MIT offers open couseware on Atmospheric Radiation that is “an introduction to the physics of atmospheric radiation and remote sensing including use of computer codes. Subjects covered include: radiative transfer equation including emission and scattering, spectroscopy, Mie theory, and numerical solutions. We examine the solution of inverse problems in remote sensing of atmospheric temperature and composition.”
Thomas Jefferson got his ideas most certainly in part from his own genius. But that genius was fed by being an avid reader. The Internet opens Jefferson’s ideas and his reading globally. The image of his books shown here is from the Thomas Jefferson Library online exhibition at the Library of Congress website. The Library at Monticello, Jefferson’s Virginia home, provides more of his reading and thinking. To learn from a scholar of how Jefferson built his ideas on the shoulders of giants, you can sit in on a lecture by Yale University’s Alfred Cowles Professor of Political Science Steven B. Smith. Videotaped from a course on Introduction to Political Philosophy the lecture describes the influence of Locke and other political thinkers on Thomas Jefferson:
John Locke had such a profound influence on Thomas Jefferson that he may be deemed an honorary founding father of the United States. He advocated the natural equality of human beings, their natural rights to life, liberty, and property, and defined legitimate government in terms that Jefferson would later use in the Declaration of Independence. Locke’s life and works are discussed, and the lecture shows how he transformed ideas previously formulated by Machiavelli and Hobbes into a more liberal constitutional theory of the state.
In this history learn node, the World War I soldier shown is my grandfather Clarence L. North (1884-1969). In his obituary, which is posted on my family website, his role in assisting General John Pershing is recorded. Grandpa would have loved the Internet. He was a very innovative guy: as the obituary records, he invented cinder-brick! By posting his story here, I am putting his memory a bit into recorded history. Perhaps future scholars of Pershing’s war management and/or the history of brick manufacturing will add Grandpa in as a footnote somewhere, citing the obituary. By posting Grandpa here, I have created an online node where one can learn his story in the vast Internet network.
Biography of people alive today is being preserved with new, robust digital methods. A good place to find out examples of this kind of preservation is the Library of Congress Blog, where for example the new recording of people recalling history is described in this post: Library Preserves Voice of Last Living World War I Veteran.
Remembering World War I in a different way are memorial structures and spaces. These are studied in The Open University’s Arts and History course on the Commemoration of War, which includes this page on The Royal Artillery Memorial.
A biography learn node of William Penn with the story of his role in the history of Pennsylvania is a large topic. The Internet has many excellent nodes of materials on the subject. This blog post is a small learnode combining a sampling of William Penn webpages:
The image that illustrates this post is from an excellent introduction to Penn at HippoCampus.org. To see the image in the introductory presentation click on “Pennsylvania and Delaware” on HIppoCampus’s page: Browse US History, English Colonies.
Long, official and authoritative Penn biographies are woven into the online exhibits of two official institutions of the State of Pennsylvania and one from the university of the state to the south of Penn’s former colony, at the University of Virginia:
This learn node begins with the official website of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet which provides detailed background, describes current events and is a platform for the writing and thinking of this leader. This website is an example of a new kind of biography made possible by the Internet: an open presentation by a person of him or herself. Clearly, this type of biography cannot be expected to be unbiased, but it offers new direct intimacy with the personal views of its subject.
The illustration below shows a learn node, which you can use as an educator to make webpages more findable. The top little circles illustrate links out to content nodes related to the subject of the large circle. Bottom left, experts connect to the node affirming its quality - giving it juice. Bottom right, a student connects to the node to learn the subject of its content.
This learn node begins with the 
