Introduction to GIS Education

A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer based program that permits the digital representation of real world features. The features attributes can then be viewed, queried and analyzed to determine trends or spatial relationships between features. The features are stored as layers which can be turned on or off to display the interrelationships between the features on a map.

More extensive GIS educational sources are available at the following links:

• What is GIS Video (2 min 17 sec) -
  http://gis.esri.com/esriclips/clip.cfm?ClipID=60
  
  
• New York State GIS Clearinghouse Education Page -
  http://www.nysgis.state.ny.us/outreach/training/
  
  
• Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Virtual Campus -
  http://training.esri.com/gateway/index.cfm?fa=main.home
  
  
• GIS Lounge Tutorials -
  http://gislounge.com/tutorials-in-gis/
  
  
• Penn State University’s GIS Certificate -
  http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/
  

GIS Organizations / Groups

Dutchess County GIS Executive Committee – Organization of Dutchess County government departments that meets the third Thursday of every month at the County Planning Department to discuss policy and coordination issues at the county level.    For information contact either co-chair Betsy Mark (bmark@co.dutchess.ny.us – 845-486-2140) or Bob Wills (rwills@co.dutchess.ny.us – 845-486-3600).

Dutchess County GIS Special Interest Group (GISSIG) – Organization of Dutchess County volunteers at the county and municipal level that meets at 6:00 p.m. on the fourth Wednesday of the month at the Dutchess County Farm and Home Center in Millbrook. The group discusses current GIS projects that are being worked on by volunteers, conducts demonstrations of software and hardware and discusses GIS policy issues.  For information contact Neil Curri at Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (nc273@cornell.edu – 845-677-8223 ext. 148).

New York State GIS Clearinghouse – The NYS GIS Clearinghouse provides many opportunities for interacting with others in the GIS community. Their website http://www.nysgis.state.ny.us/outreach/ provides a list-serve e-mail system to provide communication to a large community of users, a “Who’s Who in GIS” for finding contact information, a calendar of events and a Help Desk service that has a large database of GIS questions and answers and the ability to request help with a GIS question.

Go to top of page

GIS Contacts