After using GIS for the past two labs, I finally think I can call myself proficient at ArcGIS. Not good, but good enough to get by. ArcGIS has proved itself to be a super useful program, but also not super intuitive. It has a lot of techie features that would be almost impossible to figure out without help. Thankfully Jim and Scotti figured everything out before us and were able to help with all the little bugfixes and other speed bumps. Also having Audrey in my lab group, who had worked with ArcGIS in a previous class, was a great resource. She knew what she was doing and helped a lot with formatting everything.
With plenty help, I learned a lot. Originally, I had questioned why we were devoting so much time to this one program, but now I can see why GIS is so important. It is crucial to understand and present data spatially in order to recognize trends on a local or global level. Combining this with the statistical analysis we learned earlier this year, correlations can be both physically seen and described through more traditional graphs and charts. ArcGIS is clearly a very important program that will be a valuable resource in upcoming projects. For example, in my concentration, I can imagine myself mapping countries with the greatest amount of investment in AgTech in order to see if countries invest more if they agriculturally more or less developed.
Besides the actual program, the skills learned through ArcGIS can be translated to other programs. For instance, a new program can have a fairly steep learning curve, and it is definitely helpful to have other people to walk through the program with. This is certainly common with the other programs, WordPress and SSPS, that we have worked with so far. Also, speed bumps are to be expected, it seems as if it always takes more time than I think. Now however, I feel more comfortable being able to take on and use a new program or application. ArcGIS is definitely a good teaching tool.