G-I-YES

G-I-YES!

How excited I was to hear that we would finally have the chance to learn about geographic information systems! My college, Bridgewater, doesn’t offer a course, let alone any lectures on GIS. I find this lack of instruction to be surprising since GIS is such an important tool to learn how to manipulate. Plus, most entry level job applications ask those who are applying to have some kind of knowledge of the programs associated with GIS. You can even make the big bucks if you know how to work GIS inside and out!

Any hopes and dreams of becoming a GIS enthusiast slipped out of my hands today. I was able to accomplish so much with the help of Professor McNeil, but can honestly say that I would never be able to work the program on my own without instructions. What a chaotic week it was trying to get the program to work for me. I sat at my computer for at least an hour trying to get the habitat buffer program to work, only to find out that it wasn’t my fault! Once I moved all of my files onto another computer the buffering program worked just fine. I felt really bad about having to move my files onto the neighboring computer because I busted Professor McNeil’s flash drive.

GIS is certainly not user friendly. While working on ArcMap, my map disappeared multiple times and I had to ask Stephanie to find it for me. I wasn’t the only one who was struggling with GIS either. There were at least five other frustrated students with different computer problems who had to try switching computers as well.

Despite the fact that GIS week didn’t go as well as planned, I am still going to take an independent study class next semester on GIS. I would like to learn more about the program so that I can use it on my own in the future. I would like to thank whoever put together the GIS instructions for each day because they were extremely helpful. I will keep the instructions so that I can use them the next time that I use GIS. In the future, I hope to be able to understand and use GIS to the best of my ability to map out urban areas since I’m interested in urban planning and design. Who knows, maybe with time, practice, and a positive attitude I will become an expert in the field of GIS.