[GRASSLIST:3433] GRASS as educational tool? (was: Just another stupid question from a paranoid education fun!)

[Bernhard Reiter]

On Thu, Apr 04, 2002 at 07:34:16PM +1000, ivan wrote:

> I am interested in GRASS as both teaching and research tool primarily
> because of it non-commercial and generic nature. 

Please note that GRASS' status as Free Software does not make it make
it non-commercial. There are commercial businesses utilising GRASS
and developing for it.

> ESRI provides excellent
> set of tools, but a single copy - ready to use workstation with ArcGIS
> license is priced at around 12.000$ US.  The question is how many
> university graduate students can buy it to start doing some simple
> consultancy or independent research work. Not too many I guess.

That is only one drawback of proprietory software.
Another is that they will not have access to the underlying
technology if they are interested and that they cannot adapt
the tools and share them. 

Free Software is a good match for teaching and resarch.

> Once again can you see GRASS as an educational tool for students in 
> Earth Science (Geology; Geophysics, Fluvial Geomorphology, Soil Science; 
> Geography); Please send your opinion or www references if you aware  of 
> any examples.

Depending of the level you want to use it, 
GRASS is very well suited for this.
Sometimes you might check out other Free Software solutions from freegis.org
depending on goals for the courses.

I know that GRASS has been used a lot in teaching.
Recent examples I only know from Germany.
The "Grass Anwendervereinigung e.V." (GAV) www.grass-verein.de
(German Grass User Group) has quite some members who are using
GRASS in universities as educational tool.


-- 
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