<div dir="ltr">Hi Gretha,<div>I don't think anyone missed the fact that you want to move to opensource and frankly just the fact that you are willing and considering it is a great win. However people in general are lazy and the reality of life is that the first software they encounter for a specific task will likely be their frame of reference for a long time to come. Not many people will actually actively investigate and try out alternatives. I used envi at university because that was what my lecturer used and even though I know that there is alternatives I have not really spend the time looking at them. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Some of the constraints you mentioned with regards to using opensource software would be very valuable feedback to the developers of the software and I am sure they would give attention to a well considered email detailing ways of improving the software to make it easier to start off with. I believe Tim Sutton lurks on the list and he is one of the key people at QGIS and even within driving distance for a meetup from your campus.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Presenting a short course on different types of software could actually be something really useful. It would be great to get an unbiased academic opinion on the merits of various types of software and what they offer.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Regards</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 12 August 2014 07:56, Gretha <<a href="mailto:gretha_g@sun.ac.za">gretha_g@sun.ac.za</a>> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gretha_g@sun.ac.za" target="_blank">gretha_g@sun.ac.za</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">Hi,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">Can I just clarify? I’m not sure why everybody missed the first bit, but I did say that we want to go Open Source, or at least include some sections in which we use open source software :)<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">We as a tertiary education institution focus our courses on
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;color:black">the basic theoretical principles of GIS and a generic understanding of what GIS is. We do not aim to teach students just how to use different types of software. These are not vendor generated
courses focusing on teaching software skills. We do however demonstrate what is available in terms of different types of software, and I agree with the general opinion that we should incorporate that more on a practical level, which is why we want to add practical
exercises done with open source software.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;color:black">There is also the practical problem that these are short courses, and we have limited time in which to teach the basic theoretical principles of GIS. If we introduce to many types
of software students end up spending most of the practical time on familiarising themselves with the software instead of moving on to the demonstration of concepts such as projection, the different data models, spatial query etc.
<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;color:black">Maybe we should think about introducing a short course focussing on an introduction to the different types of software available….<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;color:black">Regards,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;color:black">Gretha</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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