I'd like to add two ideas:

1. It might be possible to draw upon the resources / materials of the Digital Library for Earth System Education for this endeavor. If you are not familiar with this resource I suggest that you check it out:

Of course this would depend on site's administrators. But it would be worth checking out.

2. Regarding on-line field trips: There is an increasing science education literature base on how to build educational field trips (and even more specifically geological field trips). This could be used as a starting point for designing a common platform for designing regional (web-based, virtual) field trips that incorporate some of the design ideas tested in the sci-ed literature. This way the virual trips have a common starting point and look which might make it easier for someone who does not live in the same area to make comparisons with his / her area.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jeff Dodick
Science Teaching Center
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Givat Ram, Jerusalem
Israel 91904