Hi: You work sounds very interesting. Are you doing comparisons between different methods (i.e. fieldwork vs virtual field trips) in your research? This might allow you to better pinpoint what is the affect of VFEs. Much of work in geology education has focused on how students understand geological time. Attached are some publications that might interest you. You might also look at some of the work that people like Hegarty and Mayer (both at Santa Barbara if I remember correctly) are doing. Good luck. Jeff Dodick ----- Original Message ----- From: Frank D. Granshaaw To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2010 5:18 PM Subject: Re: Geoscience reliance on fieldwork Thanks everyone for the lively discussion and the insights. For those of you who are going to be at GSA it would be great to meet and continue this discussion. A little bit of background on my original questions. I'm in the last stages of a dissertation on the impact of virtual field environment design and use on teacher education. I also spend the bulk of my teaching time working with non-majors. So I have a strong interest in how VFEs can be used to support field education, how their design reflects authentic fieldwork, and how they can be used to give students a "taste" of fieldwork when getting into the field isn't possible. Cheers Frank G. Frank Granshaw Earth Science Instructor Portland Community College Sylvania Campus Portland, OR 503-977-8236