ArcView2 holds much promise for facilitating advances in education in geography and other fields at both K-12 and post-secondary education levels. The software, in conjunction with rich databases, fits in well at a university in different ways - as an example of GIS and mapping technology for methods courses; as a database browser for first and second year courses; and as an analytical toolbox for upper division undergraduate substantive courses in geography.
In this regard, ArcView2 has been used in the Summer and Fall sessions of 1994 at the Geography Department, University of Maryland at College Park, for junior/senior level courses on The American City and Urban Transportation. The presentation will report on how well the software fits the educational goals of those courses, populated by students best described as novices at geography, geographic information systems, and computing.
The presentation will concentrate on pedagogic needs, setting the stage, and then evaluating the software. For example, some desirable functions are not available in ArcView2: good proportional symbol mapping, a high limit for unique values for charting, the ability to make frequency distributions and histrograms, the ability to get summary correlation coefficients for scatter graphs, dynamic spatial queries, true hypermedia presentations, and dynamically changing inset maps to give orientation. At the same time, there are merits in the ease of making queries and map displays, the dynamic linkages between chart, table, and map, the spatial querying functions, but especially the acetate layer makes it possible for students to express their own ideas about spatial patterns.
Derek Thompson
Department of Geography
University of Maryland
Lefrak Hall
College Park, Maryland 20742
Telephone: 301-405-4063
Fax: 301-314-9299
Email: dt11@umail.umd.edu
Paul Davis