Abstract
This paper (I) evaluates a new initiative in support of the aim of Commission 46 of the IAU to develop and improve astronomy education at all levels throughout the world, (2) describes a free facility to support education programs that include basic astronomy and are delivered to students who haYe access to the Internet on www.telescope.org/, (3) discusses the role of robotic telescopes (generally not truly autonomous robots but remotely driven telescopes) in supporting both students and their teachers, (4) shows that although robotic telescopes have been around for some time almost all of them are designed to cater for a tiny percentage of students, (5) shows how truly autonomous robots offer the possibility of delivering a learning experience for all students in their general education, (6) discusses the
Bradford Robotic telescope, a facility available free of charge, which is on track to deliver the initial levels of astronomy education to all school students in the UK, (7) describes problems of delivering a web-based education program to very large numbers of students, including delivering such a programme with teachers who have little confidence working with IT and little knowledge of basic astronomy, and (8) discusses practical solutions.
