Lab 4: Introducing ArcMap

Using Arcmap for the first time has been an interesting and exciting experience. Its very complicated, but behind every button is a feature to manipulate data. I am in awe of the power and usefullness it has. Also it very cool that with a couple clicks it can calculate things that would have taken a very long time if done with out a computer. My experience has been overall a good one and the tutorial proved to be understandable and easy to follow. I enjoy the learning by doing strategy and was able to produce stunning maps. I had some problems because I saved files in different areas, so I lost data when I thought I had it all on my flash drive. That problem is just from being new to the program and next time I'll be sure to save all the nescessary files together.

The potential and power of Arcmap is obvious. The data can be manipulated in huindreds of ways by just clicking on different functions. No math is needed, so you can concentrate on organizing and manipulating the data to give some sort of insight. The computer does all the repetetive calculations and the user is left to think and reason about what the data shows in more visual and new ways.

There are some pitfalls but I think they are rapidly disapearing. As computers become better and better and the software improves, and as users get better at Arcmap, errors become much less common. But I think the bigest source of pitfalls lie within the users inputs. If someone doesn't know what they are doing, or are purposefully changing the data or maps to suit their own personal bias, then the maps will be bad. But if the data is correct, the program is a very impartial and perfect thing that can display and manipulate the data with no bias.

Overall, it is readily apparent why Arcmap is used for almost anything. It powerfull, flexible, and impartial. It does all the numerous calculations for the user with minimal input. It makes data extremely easy to view and manipulate. I think its very enjoyable to learn how to use such an important and useful program.