Lab 2B: ArcGIS Tutorial

I had a fairly bumpy experience getting through the ArcGIS tutorial. I would not consider myself a "computer person," and being a Mac user thrown into the unknown world of out of date PCs didn't make things easier. I think the most difficult part was navigating Windows, and getting to know how the temporary workspace system worked. I ended up having to do a lot of things over due to improper saving, but it was probably for the better, because it made me more familiar with the software.

The tutorial itself was a little frustrating at first. When following directions from a book (and especially from a PDF), I think it's easy to get into a groove of clicking where you're told, without really understanding what's going on. Especially for some of the more complex operations, I felt there was a lot of jargon, and it was hard to grasp what was really happening. I think in-class/group tutorials are much better because they overcome a lot of these difficulties, and ensure the student is engaged. Regardless, by the time I finally finished the tutorial, I felt like I had a decent grip on what was going on.

It is clear to me that GIS software is very powerful and has a lot of potential. Even just scratching the surface, I was quite impressed with ArcGIS's ability for spatial analysis. I did feel like parts of the program were a little archaic, in a sense, like having to type out your own equations to get population density (vs. just clicking a button?). It seems like it would take a very long time to master all of the functions available in ArcGIS, and it's a little overwhelming.

But just as a tool, GIS is incredibly valuable. The ability to put many layers of information on one map, and to be able to update that continuously is pretty amazing. I'm sure there are applications for GIS that I haven't even begun to think about, which makes the field very exciting. I am glad to be getting into GIS at a time when most of the tedious groundwork and data entry has been completed (thanks!), and to begin analyzing geographic data in constructive ways.