GIS @ W&L

What:

Learning GIS Using ArcGIS Desktop. An ESRI Instructor led workshop to help you learn what GIS is, basic functions and properties, and how others are using it. Students will learn how to integrate GIS into their work as well as get hands-on training with ArcGIS software. More information at the ESRI website.

When:

April 10 & 11, 2007, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Where:

Parmly 302

Who:

Mary Abdoney (Science Library)
Tom Contos* (University Architect)
Lisa Dunlap (University Computing)
Laurence Eaton (Environmental Studies)
Laura Galke (Sociology & Anthropology)
Bill Hamilton (Biology)
Jim Kahn (Environmental Studies/Economics)
Carol Karsch (Library)
Cindy Morton (Science Library)
Kathryn Szramek (Geology)
John White* (Help Desk)
* will be sending someone from their department

Why:

GIS can use any type of data that has a geospatial component, whether archival or current. Instead of laboring over your data and crunching numbers just to understand it, GIS does the work for you, and presents the data in friendlier format. GIS software, such as ArcGIS, creates layered maps that can be used for presentations as well as manipulation of data.

Our Pre-Training Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 22, at 3 p.m., location to be determined in Commons Room 114. The purpose is to simply touch base before we embark on our ESRI Training in April. Here are some of the issues we need to talk about:

What do you expect to get out of the GIS training?

Are there any particular projects you have in mind?

What level of expertise would you like to eventually gain?

If you have issues you'd like to bring up, please forward them to me and I can add them to the agenda. This will be an informal meeting, so bring your questions. And don't forget about the GIS Wiki! I will be posting an agenda before the meeting.

The 7th annual ESRI Education User Conference, or EdUC, will be June 16-19 in San Diego. EdUC is the largest GIS education event in the country, with an audience of teachers, researchers, librarians, and administrators. One of the events is an Academic GIS Program Fair, which is a great opportunity to see what other attendees are doing with GIS.

To find out more, the website is at http://www.esri.com/educ. There is also a blog at http://blogs.esri.com/roller/page/ucblog to keep up to date with speakers and events. The deadline to register is April 27, so you can wait until GIS training is complete before registering.

Also check out how you can involve your seniors in EdUC.

Now that we've had our training, I'd like to hear what everyone thinks now. What questions do you still have? What new questions are lurking?

Use the comments here and we can discuss what our thoughts are now that we know the software.

The 19th Annual Virginia GIS Conference is now open for registration and paper submissions. This year, it will be held in Roanoke, so lodging and travel will be less of an issue. For more information, go to www.virginiagis.org.