Abstract Changes in society coupled with more ambitious environmental goals increase the need to make the benefits of geological knowledge visible. The Geological Survey of Sweden (SGU) is therefore evolving from its historical role as a ‘knowledge bank’ to become part of the integrated flow of public information. Three examples of the ongoing digital transformation, and how this will enable the SGU to contribute digital geological data for sustainable development, are: more automated data collection to monitor drinking water to be able to foresee water shortages; several new non-traditional marine projects, producing new information and recommendations for innovative measures to support Blue Growth, management and planning; an online virtual archive containing new data adding to our understanding of bedrock and mineral deposits, in turn leading to more efficient use of Sweden's mineral resources.

A workflow for digital geological mapping, from fieldwork to multidimensional digital map, has been designed and tested in a sector of the Northern Apennines (Furlo Anticline). Using digital tools, a field mapping campaign was conducted after the organization of conceptual schemas for data capture, storage, and management. Once the data and schemas had been tested to enable a map to be drawn using GIS tools, they were almost ready to be imported into modeling tools for maps, sections, and 3D models. Moreover, we believe that web visualization and distribution using Google Earth is a further step in the direction of knowledge transfer to a greater number of people.

Virtual field environments (VFEs) based on actual field sites are being used in professional development programs to familiarize teachers with field sites and give them the opportunity to practice investigative fieldwork, thus helping them make better use of limited field time. In other cases, the construction of VFEs provides a catalyst for actual fieldwork, and teacher workshop participants author VFEs that they can use with their own students. Virtual fieldwork development also improves technological skills relevant for the teaching of Earth system science. This article looks at what VFEs are, some of the practical and pedagogical issues involved in their design, and how they are used in teacher professional development to support and encourage field education.

Field experiences are the cornerstone of a successful geoscience education, but these activities can be difficult (if not impossible) to include in many geoscience courses due to practical concerns. Virtual field exercises, presented through a series of high-resolution zoomable panoramas created with a GigaPan® robotic camera mount and associated software, allow students to gain experience interpreting outcrops and landscapes when physical travel to a site is not feasible. Exercises incorporating GigaPan panoramas have been developed for a number of undergraduate courses at different levels within the geoscience curriculum. Students in introductory-level courses are presented with exercises that explore local geology and illustrate basic concepts such as faulting and cross-bedding. Exercises for intermediate-level courses include analysis of geomorphic features in relation to bedrock type, the influence of landforms on historical events, and interpretation of shear stress orientations and magnitudes from small-scale structural features in outcrop. More advanced exercises, utilizing multiple-tier panoramas that range from outcrop to thin-section scales, have been developed from existing field research projects. These examples represent the initial effort to develop an extensive catalog of interactive self-paced exercises that will be incorporated into classes across the geoscience curriculum.

We have developed object-oriented programming methods to enable avatar movement across the Google Earth surface in response to student actions. Students travel on their own, or in groups attached to a field vehicle avatar (a Jeep). Students communicate using text messages sent from their web pages to balloons that pop up from the avatars in Google Earth. Students can be located locally in a lab class or at great distances from one another, as in a distance education course. Our programming methods help to create a more engaging virtual field trip in which the students take the lead and decide where to go rather than simply reading text and viewing graphics in a tour designed by their instructor. The user interactivity via avatars is controlled by JavaScript and PHP. Since the position of each avatar is known, it is possible to track their movements and offer text-message advice when students stray off-task or wander about aimlessly. Our methods will be included in new virtual field trips being developed for Iceland, Hawaii, and other locations.

A Google Earth–based virtual field trip, part of an introductory geology class, has been developed to illustrate the geology of the Presidential Range, New Hampshire. During a class field trip to Mt. Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast, students record GPS locations of exposures and collect information in the form of field notes and digital images from outcrops. Students upload the GPS waypoints into Google Earth and their images into a class PicasaWeb album, and they also make video clips that are uploaded into a class YouTube account. In Google Earth, the students embed and geologically annotate their images and embed their video clips. The final product is a Google Earth .kmz file or what is termed a mashup. The mashup provides a permanent record of the excursion and, if made available on the Internet, allows any user the ability to easily view the geology at any time. Constructing the mashup from the real field trip initiated reflective, independent, student-motivated learning and group work using technology that the students regularly use and enjoy doing. The resulting mashups have been very good, with an appropriate level of geologic content for an introductory course. Grading, which normally is onerous, is actually enjoyable, entertaining, and easy.