GIS Portfolio: Ross Wygmans

  The purpose of this lab was to learn how to create and organize essential map elements including title, legend, scale bar, and north arrow. We also experimented using various colors and symbols as means of highlighting important themes on the map while drawing attention away from less important features. Our task was to create a simple map showing the location of the UWF Main Campus within the context of Escambia County.  The part of the lab I found most interesting (and simultaneously frustrating) was reviewing the metadata for the various data used in our map. It seemed that each metadata was organized differently than the others to varying degrees. While I was able to eventually find most of the metadata information needed to complete the lab, I was thinking how convenient it would be to have a more standardized metadata format associated with all geospatial data. It seems like reading and interpreting metadata is a skill in and of itself, and I'm sure my speed and efficiency

  I found this first lab assignment to be pretty straightforward. It was helpful to familiarize myself with the Citrix Receiver virtual machine and to learn something about the file management system used for this and other GIS courses. I was familiar with most of the tasks that were executed within the ArcGIS Pro software.  Before completing this lab, I did not know about Google Drive File Stream. Using this app creates a seamless bridge for sharing files between my local machine and the GIS virtual desktop. I will definitely be using this app outside of this course.