Week Four Lab Assignment

           GIS software is a very useful thing that has many advantages and has huge potential in the real world. However, like most things life it is not without its flaws and has some minor pitfalls that make the experience a bit more difficult. My first experience with ArcMap was a mixed experience, but mainly yielded positive results.

            The amount of negatives in my experience with ArcMap is few but it exposes some of the possible pitfalls of GIS. One of the main problems that I encountered with the program was that there was some redundancy when it came to doing certain functions. For example, there would be several ways to perform a function and one would not really be more efficient than the other. The multiple ways of achieving the same function could result in confusion between the user and the program and possibly result in inaccurate data as well as being difficult for the user to gain a commanding knowledge of the program. My experience with ArcMap uncovered some pitfalls of GIS.

            Using ArcMap allowed me to uncover much more potential in GIS rather than pitfalls. Although the program could be very confusing at times, mainly because of the enormous amount of functions there are, it made me appreciate just how many possibilities there are to visually display critical and relevant information for an area. In addition, there is almost an infinite amount of data that can be represented through GIS programs that could benefit humanity in general. The potential of GIS far outweighs the pitfalls simply because of the limitless versatility and possibility of the software.

            My experience with ArcMap made me realize several things about GIS in general. First off, I noticed the difficulties that came with learning new software that has so many different ways of completing functions, and I found that to be frustrating and thought of it as inefficient. However, reflecting on the experience makes me accept that the complications that come with learning the program is simply a by-product of the limitless potential GIS has and the diversity of data that it can represent. Working with ArcMap helped me visualize the vast potential that GIS has for society.