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Drone club, a newly made after school activity allows students to learn how to use drones, and apply their drone piloting skills in school applications. The drone club was introduced in spite of AISG’s new common core curriculum, which introduces a stronger connection between students and technology. This was the same reason why the idea for AISG’s Innovation Lab was formulated. The creation of The Innovation Lab and Drone Club were mainly focused on helping students adapt to using technology to solve problems, and prepare students for the technological dependent world they now live in.
Drone piloting has several school applications that may help students in the future, which mainly focus on gathering media using drones, and learning how to code by practicing guiding drones through challenges. Drone piloting has been especially useful in gathering photos and videos for tech projects in school. For instance, if students had to film a video about Guangzhou’s geography they may wish to do some aerial photography of Guangzhou’s landscape using drones. Other clubs like media crew are also able to take advantage of the drones to cover school events. For instance, the media crew earlier this month used drones to cover a cross-country retreat. The drone club members once they have reached the appropriate rank will be able to pilot the DJI drones, which include a built in camera. The drone club coordinator, Neo Aung responded that, “Students will enjoy flying the DJI drones the most as they will be able to view the world from a new perspective.” Within drone club, students are also learning about coding, and applying this knowledge to guide their drone around the school using a code they created using program called tickle. Programming the drones appears to be slightly harder than expected for the students to grasp as they have not normally programmed before, or been in other activities like robotics, but this new skill will be useful for the students if they choose to take a career in engineering.
Another characteristic of drone club is that it pushes students to come up about new ideas, or obstacles to fly their drones through because, the supervisors in Drone club are intent on making students critically think about how to go over a problem, and allowing students to have independent thinking. This is particularly why students in drone club are mostly allowed to do free-flying to learn in a way they find comfortable. “Drone club has a free atmosphere that allows students to learn at their own pace, and fly freely,” as described by Carlos Giralt Oritz, a member of the Drone club. Drone club also has different ranks, which allow members to set goals for their progress in becoming a certified drone pilot at a pace they find comfortable, but these ranks are mainly to help students be aware of their prowess, they range from a third class pilot rank to a top rank class.
As interesting as the club seems some students were not as happy by the fact that they were unable to fly a variety of drones until they reached the top rank. In drone club some students are getting bored by preforming flights with the same type of drone. While the process of approaching the top rank may seem tiresome it is necessary for the students to begin their instruction with simple drones as with these drones the students will gain the basic skills needed for drone piloting. After students master flying with the simple parrot drones they will be able to easily pass through the ranks in drone club as all ranks require the same skills, but have different difficulties. While students may not enjoy being unable to fly other drones they must understand that this slow and steady instruction is needed for drone piloting, because if the students don’t learn the needed skills and safety instruction, they could end up damaging the drone they are flying, injuring someone, and disturbing school events. Last year the school administration believed that drones were a safety hazard, but if drones are controlled and used properly they can greatly aid students in preforming various tasks.
In essence, drone club, much like the innovation lab, was created with the notion that students would be motivated to try using new technology, and implement it in their daily lives. With the creation of the Drone Club and innovation lab, students have been more comfortable with using technology to solve their problems. The process of integrating technology in the curriculum is slow, but in time the school will be brought in the technologically advanced world we now live in.
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