Hi, I just want to share my experience teaching grass and qgis using the osgeo FOSS4G 2008 livedvd.
I was invited by a non-profit organization to provide an overview of using FOSS Geo tools. The organization provides mapping services to Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines through collaborative efforts like participatory mapping, resource mapping for asserting IP rights to resources and ancestral domain. The participants are in-house geo-analysts coming from Indigenous Communities as well (note that the participants, have no formal GIS "schooling" and has no experience using FOSS Geo thus far). I provided several exercise using QGIS and GRASS (no offense to udig and gvsig, I don't use them hence, I can't teach them). I didn't used the GRASS sample dataset, because I want local sample data for my exercise. My datasets are just a landsat image and a dem. The exercises are as follows: Part 1 Open GRASS and QGIS - load vector and raster layers, saving project files Part 2 Editing GRASS vectors and rasters (v.digit, r.contour, r.shaded.relief) Part 3 Remote sensing based-classification (v.to.rast, i.group, i.gensigset, i.samp, r.reclass, r.report) Part 4 Map layout and visualization (QGIS map composer, NVIZ) The initial plan was to do everything GUI, but I had to move to grass terminal when we did the image classification because QGIS doesn't have the i.smap in the grass toolbox plugin. Anyway, this provided me the opportunity to show the advantages of using the CLI. At the end of the session, I showed them that by understanding CLI commands of grass, you can actually paste every command to a text file, run a bash script, implement all the exercise including map layout we did for 3 hours, in just several seconds! The reaction was: "Hey, I can do more work with GRASS while drinking my beer!" Reminds me of xkcd: http://xkcd.com/303/ ;-) The overall experience was good and I believe I was able to demonstrate FOSS Geo's power over the $25,000 esri stack they currently have (the DVDs I bought and distributed was just a little over $1!). Some thoughts (and requests) on improving my subsequent FOSS Geo demos: 1. I can't get the live-dvd running laptop to display to the LCD projector. I had to use another windows laptop for the presentation and GRASS/QGIS demo. Is there way to fix that in the live-dvd? Or is it the projector? 2. If the live-dvd running laptop works on the lcd projector, I can't show my presentation slides because it has no openoffice impress (which is correct to strip down the size). Is it possible for future release of the live-dvd to at least add a pdf reader? This way I can convert my presentation slides to a pdf document and I won't be needing another machine for my slide presentation. 3. It is best to use local datasets, participants can "relate" to the data better. Although my sample data are just a landsat image and a dem, I was able to demonstrate how to produce several map layers with GRASS and QGIS (landcover, hillshading, contours, etc). 4. Never underestimate the power of showing newbies the CLI. I usually hide the CLI when introducing FOSS Geo to noobs for fear that they might be overwhelmed with the cryptic commands with no menus and icons to click-on. If others have some experience and tips in teaching FOSS Geo, please share them here. -- cheers, maning ------------------------------------------------------ "Freedom is still the most radical idea of all" -N.Branden wiki: http://esambale.wikispaces.com/ blog: http://epsg4253.wordpress.com/ ------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
