VIRTUAL FIELDWORK DEVELOPMENT IS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Through Enhanced Earth System Teaching through Regional and Local (ReaL) Earth Inquiry, a professional development and curriculum materials development project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF DRL 0733303), we are developing a nationwide series of Teacher-Friendly Guides for teaching about regional and local geology, and we are providing professional development programs with teachers in each region. This session focuses on the professional development work done in the project and the curriculum resources created by teachers through that professional development. Teachers are gaining field experience, creating Virtual Fieldwork Experiences™ (VFEs) and bringing students into the field.

Virtual fieldwork involves the exploration of digital representations of actual field sites. To provide learners with VFEs, a virtual representation of the site must be created. VFE creation is a powerful opportunity for educator professional development. In order to create a VFE, the author must:

• Closely study the local environment with an eye toward engaging students;
• Complete actual fieldwork at the site, and/or gather data remotely; and;
• Use educational and geospatial technologies in the assemblage and presentation of the VFE.

In the context of the project’s driving question, “Why does this place look the way it does?” VFE creation and use also offers a way to bring the local environment to topics across the curriculum. VFEs necessarily serve as documentation of all of the above and may also document students doing fieldwork, and, may document an array of other aspects of technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006; Thompson & Mishra, 2007).

This session should interest both providers and recipients of professional development.