so glad to see GRASS/QGIS Iopen source GIS) being taught! keep up the good work gentlemen!<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 10/6/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Michael Barton</b> <<a href="mailto:michael.barton@asu.edu">
michael.barton@asu.edu</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">I regularly teach a course in spatial technologies for anthropology grad
<br>students. I have to start with an assumption that people know no GIS and go<br>from there. But I also want the students to be able to use GIS and related<br>tools in their research, not just to be able to push buttons and make maps.
<br>This is consistently difficult, of course.<br><br>Beginning in 2004, I started to use GRASS in the course. I did both GRASS<br>and ESRI (both ArcView and ArcGIS in that year) as the software I discussed.<br>This was overly complicated and I probably will not include ArcGIS next
<br>time.<br><br>In 2005, I did a similar course at the U. Valencia (Spain) with only GRASS.<br>This past spring, I co-taught a remote sensing course that included GRASS<br>(along with other software) as recommended tools. (The PDF's are available
<br>on my website and can be used by anyone who wants to).<br><br>The one biggest issue in using GRASS has been that most students use MS<br>Windows and GRASS was difficult to install for them--and consistently had<br>Windows related problems of access and permissions. This has been magnified
<br>in a lab setting.<br><br>GRASS works great for teaching fundamental GIS and image processing<br>concepts--if you can get it to run on your Windows machine. I also strongly<br>recommend QGIS for beginners. However, it is more limited for teaching GIS
<br>research concepts--especially on Windows where (at least until recently) the<br>GRASS plugins were either unavailable or complicated to install.<br><br>The new Windows native GRASS will make a HUGE difference in this. One of my
<br>doctoral students just did a 2 afternoon workshop for other grad students on<br>GRASS and GIS. Huidae Cho and Glynn Clements did the new WinGRASS just in<br>time and deserve a tremendous thanks. Although it is still an alpha version,
<br>90+% works which is enough to teach with. Everyone used it in the workshop.<br><br>I've looked at QGIS 0.8 and it is very nice. With the continuing work, it<br>should also be an excellent teaching tool. When I next teach spatial
<br>technologies in a year, I will be using 100% GRASS and QGIS. Students can<br>walk away from the course with full-featured software that they can use for<br>the rest of their careers--and possibly contribute to improving. This is
<br>wonderful.<br><br>Michael<br>__________________________________________<br>Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology<br>School of Human Evolution & Social Change<br>Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity<br>Arizona State University
<br><br>phone: 480-965-6213<br>fax: 480-965-7671<br>www: <a href="http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton">http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton</a><br><br><br>> From: Benjamin Ducke <<a href="mailto:benjamin.ducke@ufg.uni-kiel.de">
benjamin.ducke@ufg.uni-kiel.de</a>><br>> Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2006 10:41:53 +0200<br>> To: GRASS devel <<a href="mailto:grass-dev@grass.itc.it">grass-dev@grass.itc.it</a>><br>> Subject: [GRASS-dev] Re: [GRASS-user] Basic GIS course ideas
<br>><br>> Hi Maning,<br>><br>> I taught a combination of QGIS and GRASS a little while ago<br>> and I think it went alright.<br>> About one third of my students had no idea about GIS at all<br>> and one third had GRASS GIS skills.
<br>><br>> So I started by demonstrating some basic mapping, GIS file<br>> format issues, projections, georeferencing etc. using QGIS.<br>><br>> From there, it was easy to start the GRASS plugin and introduce
<br>> students step-by-step to the underlying power of GRASS GIS.<br>><br>> The transition was quite smooth, as many tricky GRASS concepts<br>> (like the region) have direct visual feedback in QGIS via the<br>
> plugin and things like data import and export from/to the GRASS<br>> database get quite a lot easier using the GRASS toolbox.<br>><br>> I would recommend using GRASS GIS 6.2 and QGIS compiled natively<br>> for Windows (there are some instructions by Radim Blazek
<br>> somewhere on the Wiki site).<br>><br>> For 3D-visualization, I used ParaView and that worked well, too.<br>><br>> For an extended course including things like point patten analysis,<br>> you could also add R.
<br>><br>> Best,<br>><br>> Benjamin<br>><br>><br>> maning sambale wrote:<br>>> Hi FOSS GIS users,<br>>><br>>> I am a part-time instructor in a college teaching introductory gis<br>>> course. I have been advocating for the use FOSS GIS (particularly
<br>>> GRASS and QGIS ) in our schools for the lab sessions.<br>>> This is the second term I am doing this and have been reflecting on<br>>> how did it go the first time.<br>>><br>>> The objective of the course is for students to understand basic gis
<br>>> principles as well as practical applications in site planning, land<br>>> use, ecology and business.<br>>><br>>> Judging by the previous experience, it is a little bit difficult<br>>> introducing the student FOSS GIS especially the linux way of doing
<br>>> things (CLI). We are using XP machines and most students probably<br>>> know computers as MS windows only.<br>>><br>>> Some are more interested in creating cool maps and not on the<br>>> underlying spatial analysis techniques (
i.e. r.mapcalc) that were<br>>> used.<br>>><br>>> I wrote the list to ask GRASS instructors on any ideas in making the<br>>> course better. If you have any approaches/techniques/exercises you<br>>> might want to share please do. I firmly believe using FOSS GIS
<br>>> especially in our country is very important. As a compromise though,<br>>> a suggestion from this list was to also introduce them to propriety<br>>> GIS package. We have a few arcview 3.2 in the lab so I might give a 1
<br>>> or 2 sessions about it.<br>>><br>>> Any ideas would be appreciated.<br>>><br>>> Cheers,<br>>><br>>> Maning<br>>><br>><br>> --<br>> Benjamin Ducke, M.A.<br>> Archäoinformatik
<br>> (Archaeoinformation Science)<br>> Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte<br>> (Inst. of Prehistoric and Historic Archaeology)<br>> Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel<br>> Johanna-Mestorf-Straße 2-6<br>
> D 24098 Kiel<br>> Germany<br>><br>> Tel.: ++49 (0)431 880-3378 / -3379<br>> Fax : ++49 (0)431 880-7300<br>> <a href="http://www.uni-kiel.de/ufg">www.uni-kiel.de/ufg</a><br>><br>><br><br><br>_______________________________________________
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