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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Subject: | RE: GISList: Teaching Software advice sought |
| Date: |
08/16/2002 07:18:31 PM |
| From: |
Dimitri Rotow |
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> At this very early stage, we are considering
> courses in programming (VB, Avenue), database
> management (Access, Oracle, and SQL), some
> overview type courses that will cover the likes
> of cartographic principles, precision farming,
> etc., an intro to remote sensing, spatial
> stats, etc. - all, of course, with respect to
> our dual focus. We also would like to offer a
> course in data acquisition that will deal with
> GPS, data loggers, on-screen digitizing, etc.
> In other words, we want to provide students
> with the essential tools they will need in
> either field.
>
Rick,
I'd suggest taking a look at Manifold 5.00. It has several useful features
for educational usage:
1) It's free for academic institutions. Well, you do have to buy one copy
but after that it is completely free under the Academic License. Even home
use by students and faculty is OK. Our latest policy is to grant Enterprise
Edition licenses to Academic licensees, allowing DBMS-centric work using
enterprise DBMS as central GIS data warehouses.
2) It's the only GIS that includes Microsoft-standard scripting languages
with a rich, agnostic choice of all of the major scripting languages (VB
scripting, Javascript, PERL and Python) that are also supported by a
professional quality debugger and Microsoft drag'n'drop forms controls. I
think it is a crime to inflict dead, proprietary languages like Avenue on
students. Students have limited time, so when they take the time to learn a
language it should be something they can utilize in as many settings as
possible. ActiveX scripting languages are the universal language of web
scripting and of advanced Microsoft applications... when they take the time
to study these they learn techniques that will serve them far beyond GIS.
3) It is the only GIS that provides in a single package support for all of
the key data types and functions that are used in modern GIS: vector
drawings, raster images, surfaces, and 3D terrains without needing to buy or
learn optional packages. You can do sophisticated remote sensing
manipulations with images as well as doing vector work. Because it reads 80
different formants your students will be able to work with an immense range
of interesting, important data sets. Don't limit students to relatively
barren vector work or idiotically primitive image work. With Manifold your
students can clean up remote sensing images, recombine hyperspectral
channels, do processing and then create vector maps with on-screen
digitizing all in the same package.
4) The legacy GIS packages seem to have forgotten that GIS is as much about
database capabilities as it is about map editing or other visual things.
Manifold has by far the richest DBMS capabilities of any of the GIS
packages, with modern DBMS capabilities like neurofuzzy inferencing,
decision support, "more like this" pattern recognition, Active Columns and
many more DBMS capabilities than anything you can get from ESRI or Geomedia
at any price.
5) Manifold includes a GPS console that automatically interacts with GPS
devices to fetch data, do moving map work, create tracks, etc. You could
use this in your data acquisition course as well as in the GIS courses. GPS
is fun.
6) Everyone likes to show their ideas on Internet, and Internet map serving
is a key part of any modern education in GIS. Manifold includes an Internet
Map Server that allows WYSIWIG creation of maps within Manifold and then
instant publication to the web with just a few mouse clicks...no programming
required. It is always good publicity for a course, the institution and for
the students involved when the whole world can interact with the cool maps
you create via a simple browser.
7) In a more philosophical vein, education should broaden student's minds
about where trends are going, not cast them into fossil technology that is
already obsolete. As an educator it is important to stretch people's minds
with modern ideas in software. The ESRI stuff, even the ArcInfo 8 family,
has the same old obsolete ideas wrapped in a new coat of paint. For
example, ESRI has just recently admitted that "topology on the fly" as is
done in Manifold is much faster than the old-fashioned, embedded topology
used for so many years in ESRI products. They have announced a plan to move
to our way of doing it. Manifold delivers the very latest technology and
modern ideas in software, typically years before the old guys "get it."
8) Manifold is evolving much faster than any of the other GIS products. In
three years it has gone from a somewhat simple system (Release 4.00) to a
rough equivalent to ArcView or MapInfo Professional (Release 4.50) to
perhaps the most sophisticated and powerful GIS system ever created (Release
5.00). At the present time, our evolution is accelerating at a ti
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