GIS Potentials and Pitfalls

     This is the the second time I have taken an introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) course, and I preferred the Geog 7 tutorial from my previous class experience at community college.  For one, I was able to work in my own pace and not worry about keeping up with the rest of the class.  I will admit, I'm a little bit slow when it comes to using the ArcGIS software and the Geog 7 ArcMap Tutorial was perfect for me.  Although, I enjoyed my experience with Geog 7 ArcMap Tutorial, the excersise had some potential and pitfalls.

     One of the things that I enjoyed the most, I mentioned this before, is the ability work in my own pace.  The tutorial's walk through steps were very clear.  I enjoyed having the tutorial having the pictures on how the product was supposed to look like in each slide.  Besides having the pictures, towards the end of the excersise, it did tested us on what we learned from previous slides.  I did had to look at previous pages in order to remember how to complete some of the steps, but for the most part I remember.  New users of ArcGIS would find this excersise pretty straightforward. 

     Now some of the pitfalls, was when I had to work from the remote access in my pc.  When I did worked on it from my home's pc, the software was extremely slow.  Even though I saved my work from the remote access in my flashdrive none of  the work appeared during normal lab hours while on campus.  The result of this, I had to restart from the beginning; however, having to restart from the beginning made me more proficient in ArcGIS.  In addition, some of the steps were kind of vague, but for the most part I was able to figure it out for the most part.  For example, in excersise one, I had to manually expand the data sheet in ordet to look like the tutorial (using the blue arrows), it took me a while to figure where were the blue arrows.  For the most part, the ArcMap Tutorial was pretty straight forward.

     Overall, the excersise was pretty straight forward and user friendly for the most part.  The excersise allows the user to work in his or her own pace. Instructions are very clear to understand and the user can follow along.  I think the ArcMap Tutorial is perfect for anybody wanting to know how to use ArcGIS.