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PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
a timeline for some of the more intensive workshops
and institutes. It is essential that the planning team
meet face-to-face on a regular basis prior to these
planning-intensive events.
Planning is the biggest concern associated with
workshop preparation, both to address instruction-
al concerns, but especially to assure organization-
al and logistical structures are in order. Hands-on
workshops require special attention to budgetary
discussions, initiated months prior to a scheduled
workshop date. Budgetary considerations may in-
clude: instructional fees, travel, rental cost of the
workshop venue, instructional resource develop-
ment, and gathering and preprocessing instructional
data. Table 3 provides an example of budgetary items
by general category as well as a more detailed list of
items associated with each category.
The instructor and instructional developer must
be familiar with technologies used during the work-
shop, experienced with local software, be prepared
with an understanding and appreciation of the tar-
get audience (i.e., understanding the needs of high
school teachers vs. the needs of state agency decision
makers), and should be adaptable and able to relate
to issues associated with a wide array of subject and
discipline areas (water quality, planning, forestry,
etc.). The instructional developer should be an in-
dependent worker and an excellent communicator,
have an understanding of benefits and limitations
of different forms of media (text, video, etc.), and be
willing and able to integrate the appropriate instruc-
tional approaches to effectively support the topic and
the target audience.
Benefits and Rewards
Virginia educators have been recognized for their
statewide geospatial workforce development efforts.
Many VirginiaView instructors have received National
Awards for their outreach and educational efforts to
promote geospatial technology knowledge and skills.
Statewide collaboration is essential. Consortium part-
ners and state agencies support our activities and we,
in turn, support their educational efforts.
Tutorials and other educational resources have
been well received. The Virginia Geospatial Pro-
gram/VirginiaView remote sensing tutorials have
been viewed over 30,000 times
). In addition, each
month VirginiaView receives requests for additional
workshops, tutorials, and other educational out-
reach materials.
