Aerial view of University Place, WA
Now I am not going to pretend like I am doing anything right now with drones except having a lot of fun and taking some interesting pictures. But I am in the education field and I have been reading articles about drones in education. There are a lot of possibilities listed by the authors. Some of them are around the STEM side of things: “students will learn how to build drones” which is a worthy pursuit but seems strangely self-referential. There are a number of articles directed at elementary educators that claim that we should use drones because “students find them engaging.” This is never a good enough reason to use any technology. What is more important is to show students how the technology can solve problems. Novelty fades but learning how to solve problems is a deeper engagement.
I have worked on a Rangeland Management grant and drones seem like a natural for that field. Drones certainly bring down the cost of aerial photography which would be a boon to forest and watershed management, geology, etc. Combining drones with Google Maps and other applications could provide some very powerful research tools. App creators are already building apps that tell drone pilots where it is safe to fly which requires them to integrate a number of online tools.
Hubsan Drone
Here is my current reading list on drones:
- Early Days for Drone Use in Higher Education by Timothy M. Chester
- What Drone Technology Can Teach Students by Leah Levy
- Drones in Woodland Elementary classroom soar, flip and teach by Megan Hussey
- 7 Ways to Use Drones in the Classroom by Heather Wolpert-Gawron
If there are articles that you have read on drones in education that you think we should know about, feel free to contact me or leave a reply below.
