How many times teaching GIS have you wanted to quickly illustrate a function such as geocoding or viewsheds but you didn’t have GIS software or spatial data loaded on the instructor’s computer? Many key GIS functions are available on the ESRI Resources pages that allow you to demonstrate the functions without any software required, thanks to ArcGIS Server technology combined with application programming interfaces available through JavaScript and other tools.

To access these tools, visit: http://resources.esri.com. You may wish to bookmark this source for useful online maps, data sets, tools, and more. Next, select “ArcGIS Server.” On the following screen, select the “Resources” tab at the top and pull down the “Online SDKs”. These are the Software Development Kits, and can be used with JavaScript, Flex, .NET, and Java to develop your own mashups, geoprocessing tools, and more.

Select JavaScript, and on the next screen, ArcGIS JavaScript API. You should now be on the page: http://resources.esri.com/arcgisserver/apis/javascript/arcgis/index.cfm?fa=home.

Select the “Samples” tab to see online samples on the left side. You can use them to illustrate specific functions, the power of spatial analysis, and even have students use the source code to build their own applications. For each sample, select “View Live Sample” above the description and source code.

Say you want to illustrate the difference between geocoding an address and a reverse geocode. Simply access the Geocode Task and the live sample for both types of geocoding. Population Zonal Stats will estimate the population in the area that you draw on the map. Buffering, projecting, and viewsheds (shown below in orange) are other handy samples.

The “Message in a Bottle” sample uses a particle tracking model to show where a bottle would travel after a specified number of days if dropped in the ocean, and hence, it serves also as a good illustration of ocean currents.

Often, a quick demonstration is the perfect way to illustrate GIS processes, and these samples allow you to do just that. Try them and let me know how it worked.

- Joseph Kerski, ESRI Education Manager