This is the map I made this week as I learned to use ArcMap and ArcView.
I hope it efficiently conveys the data it represents!
For our introductory lab, we were given the shapefiles for the countries and cities, followed by population data, and then put together a simple map to effectively portray the distribution of population among the world's countries in 2007.
I found ArcMap fairly intuitive to navigate and it wasn't too difficult to actually make the map. It is a satisfying program because it lends itself to experimentation and exploration of all the various tools and functions. Because the procedure of making the map didn't take too long, I ran through it several times and had a couple of different versions. One version I made step-by-step as I wrote out the Process Summary details. Some aspects of the map-making I discovered after I'd already finished my initial attempt. The main one of these was changing the data ranges (and their labels in the legend) so that they are easier to read. I learned quite a lot about ArcMap and ArcView from the activities in the Process Summary as well. I did NOT find the ArcView Help to be extremely helpful at first. Basic definitions are hard to find and there is SO much information! I think this will improve as I gain more experience, however. I found Dictionary of GIS terms on ESRI's website and this helped a lot.
In addition to the lab itself, there was a huge amount of information about the structure and logistics of the courses to absorb. I spent most of my time checking and rechecking all of the links in the eLearning site to make sure I'd covered everything. I really learned a lot this week about the eLearning environment and got very familiar with navigating through the course materials and building and maintaining the blog... I feel so much better about it than I did a week ago, as I composed my first blog post! I know that this practice will give me a huge advantage as the actual substance of the courses becomes more challenging.
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