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■ organization and conduct of a technical workshop on Quantitative Methods in Remote 
Sensing, a day-long session of several video-based educational presentations on the 
processing and analysis of digital remote sensing image data 
The ASPRS Education Committee serves as the vital linkage among all Society 
education-related groups. It has been and will continue to be a forum for both concentrated, 
group and individual educational activities. 
• ASPRS Workshops Committee 
The ASPRS Worksops Committee, formed in 1989, is responsible for eliciting tutorial 
and workshop topics from various sectors within the Society. This committee works 
closely with the ASPRS Education Committee, as well as with the individual Divisions and 
their technical committees. The committee assists in the organization and scheduling of 
workshops in conjunction with national and regional meetings and cooperates with in 
structors in organizing and promoting such workshops. This continuing education activity 
of ASPRS consists of both lecture-type tutorials and hands-on workshops. The worksop 
approach to education provides professionals an opportunity to receive training other 
wise unavailable to them. 
• THE NEED FOR A CORE CURRICULUM IN EARTH RESOURCES INFORMATION SYSTEMS 
Recent studies have revealed that graduates of earth resources programs, such as 
forestry, natural resources, wildlife and range management, geology, and others dealing 
with land, water, and air, have been receiving inappropriate education and training in the 
basic remote sensing disciplines of photointerpretation and photogrammetry. In the past 
ten years, a growing number of resource managers have observed that such students are 
inadequately and perhaps improperly trained in the acquisition and use of aerial photo 
graphs (Meyer and Hackett, 1990). Some of the decline in the quality of basic aerial image 
analysis can be attributed to the increasing use of and education in non-photographic sys 
tems, satellite platform remote sensing, and non-visual analysis techniques. Perhaps the 
relatively recent growth of satellite remote sensing and GIS has caused a shift from more 
of the traditional aspects of remote sensing towards some of the more high tech ones, re 
sulting in many graduates lacking the basic skills in photointerpretation and 
photogrammetry (Sader et a/., 1989). Obviously, the space and computer age components 
of remote sensing are important, but to teach them at the expense of more fundamental 
aspects is an injustice to the students and detrimental to their ability to perform as quali 
fied, professional resource managers. 
In studies dealing specifically with forestry-related education, but with observations that 
could be applied to the entire spectrum of remote sensing application areas, several note 
worthy recommendations have emerged (Meyer and Hackett, 1990; Sader et a/., 1989): 
1. Universities offering a B.S. degree in forestry (or other earth science discipline) should 
require a course in remote sensing. 
2. The content of this required course should be approximately 30% photointerpretation and 
30% photogrammetry (with applications constituting the balance). 
3. Remote sensing instructors should communicate and cooperate with resource managers 
in structuring course content to prepare students to perform more effectively as profes 
sionals. 
Given these observations and recommendations, perhaps it is wise to suggest a set of na 
tional standards for remote sensing education and training. These standards, to be determined 
and agreed upon by representative from academia, practicing resource managers, and relevant 
professional societies (such as ASPRS, ISPRS, ACSM, et a/.), could be embodied in an under 
graduate core curriculum in remote sensing. 
For example, the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) has de 
veloped such a core curriculum for education and training in GIS. The first draft of the three-part 
program, consisting of Introduction to GIS, Technical Issues in GIS, and Application Issues In 
GIS, was completed in the summer of 1989 and has undergone extensive evaluation by educa-