By Kaila-Ann Guiste
This semester, our assignments issued were abstracts and reference pages for research projects done for Carisealand as well as mapping the locations of the reference centers in the region on the ArcGIS software. The video of instruction about ArcGIS provided a very clear routine of activity for fixing the points as well as the workings of ArcGIS. Upon loading ArcGIS, the software got easier to handle the more time that was spent with it. Practicing to use it as well as doing any point adjustment was very challenging. As usable as the software was, the computer used was in no condition to handle the program and kept crashing. Observing someone else using the program was beneficial towards being accustomed to it but the inability to use the program effectively made completing any point reassignment impossible. This was coupled with the lack of Wi-Fi at home and Wi-Fi issues at the Create space (recently fixed). This was the only assignment that applied to me since have not yet done my research contribution to the Carisealand project.
I did a research presentation with a few other Tourism and Hospitality majors for a conference in Martinique called My Earth, Our Earth, A Nugget to Preserve. The research questions asked, “Can Our Traditional Architecture Better Withstand the Impacts of a Category 5 Hurricane?” This coincides with the questions involved in the relevant topic Culture, Information, and Heritage. In this project, we analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the traditional architecture present in buildings in Roseau. These buildings portrayed the influence of French and English colonization and having withstood the test of time, some of these buildings also withstood a category 5 hurricane. We went around town to estimate the ages of these buildings, the preservative measures as well as the structures that made them resilient. There are still questions we did not emphasize on though we may have touched it briefly such as how these features can be morphed into modern homes without disfiguring them, how the functionality could be alternatively derived, and how and why we should retain these aspects of our culture. Including other questions, I believe that this study can be expanded to be my contribution to the Carisealand Project.
In my interactions with both activities, I developed an admiration for presentation software like ArcGIS and Visme. This opened my eyes to the possibilities of presentation forms further than power points and posters. In the conference, some countries used Visme showing a map of their countries with point that when interacted with showed pictures or videos and information. ArcGIS creates an interactive map of a specific collection of points on real world locations. These programs will definitely add value to my future presentations because now I know that there is more to it than what I knew. The only downside to this is that these are only functional in areas with good Wi-Fi reception. At the conference, a few countries were unable to present using Visme because of this.