IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - September 2017 - 14

understand the context of the author's life and the personal
experiences and circumstances that may have motivated
him to write his masterpiece, Don Quixote. Other resources
include open-source software and free data allocated in
spatial data infrastructures readily available for use. Many
resources available are accessible to schools for free or at a
relatively low cost.
In HE, educators and scholIN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE,
ars may be more interested
AUTOMATED UAV FLIGHTS,
in applying the theoretical
AUTOMATED CLASSIFICAknowledge in real-life appliTION METHODS IN RS AND
cations as well as improving
GEOPROCESSING, AND
the existing applications and
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
developing new ones through
DEVELOPMENTS WILL PUSH
research and innovation-not
TOWARD THE DISAPPEARonly in science and engineerANCE OF THE ROLE OF THE
ing but also in the social sciences [60]. Nonetheless, the
EXPERT OPERATOR.
use of UAVs in mathematics
courses is also applicable, increasing the complexity accordingly. UAVs have the potential of publicizing geosciences
and expanding geotechnologies, especially RS and GIS, to assist in the dissemination and implementation of the spatial
university across the curriculum.
A few HEIs, such as the University of Calgary, Canada;
Kuwait University, Kuwait City; or Pomona College, Claremont, California, have already implemented certain aspects
of the spatial university [12]. In particular, the University
of Redlands, California, is pioneering the full implementation of the spatial university's following four main foci [61]:
1) applying spatial thinking across the curriculum-this
principle was recently supported by a study on the development of critical spatial thinking [9]
2) developing a geospatial workforce to meet employers'
demands and fill in the already existing gaps in this
field [2], [3]
3) geoenabling research for enhancing the outcomes from
multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches
4) managing HE facilities and resources with geotechnologies [14], [15], [62].
In LLL courses, the main interest may depend on the
nature of the course; the focus may rest on updating geoscience and geotechnology professionals or on the business
opportunities of precision agriculture in depressed areas
where unemployment rates are high. The array of options
is vast. Surely, each stage requires a different approach,
and it is not the goal of this article to identify or describe
their specific needs but rather emphasize the unexploited
opportunities of education with UAVs, particularly in geosciences and geotechnologies. In the very near future, automated UAV flights, automated classification methods in RS
and geoprocessing, and artificial intelligence developments
will push toward the disappearance of the role of the expert
operator. Therefore, the risk of teaching and learning what
14

I call buttonology (that is, learning what buttons to push to
perform a certain task without understanding the underlying principles and techniques [63], [64]) should be avoided.
When it comes to manipulating software, it is necessary not
only to know which buttons to push but also to understand
the logic of the particular software and the algorithms behind each task. This is necessary to take full advantage of
the available hardware and software, especially in situations
where hardware and software represent constraints for the
desired output. Similar to other geotechnology instruments,
a professional must be able to handle the UAV. However,
centering the focus of education on manipulating UAVs may
be interpreted as buttonology, because the handling of the
instrument itself is a mere consequence of the goal of collecting data. Therefore, being able to understand the principles and techniques of RS is the differentiating factor when
complex situations arise.
It is, then, essential for students at every level to thoroughly understand the concepts and techniques that underlie the
tasks both to perform those tasks and, even more importantly, to discern potential problems with regard to an existing situation and use appropriate tasks as required to reach
value-added solutions.
SPATIAL EDUCATION: PRESENT AND FUTURE
The importance of spatial thinking has recently been recognized by several education institutions. However, the
acknowledgment by these institutions has not yet reached
the general public. Several committees in the NRC, including the Committee on Support for Thinking Spatially, the
Geographical Sciences Committee, the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources, and the Division on Earth and Life
Studies, agree that spatial thinking is undersupported, underappreciated, undervalued, and, hence, underinstructed
despite its fundamental role in education [5]. To change
that situation, a clear connection with STEM is paramount.
Particularly, mathematics has the support and attention of
the general public because the importance of mathematics
is clearly understood. An explicit connection of UAVs with
mathematics would also benefit geosciences and geotechnologies. This connection may come with the systematization of data collection provided by UAVs and the consequent systematization of knowledge for problem solving.
Some researchers [65] still consider the GIS&T body of
knowledge (BoK) [66] relevant for designing curriculum,
but a few concerns have been raised. Specifically, the workforce demands more focus on data management and more
programming and application development with a special
interest in web skills. Both the United States and the EU are
aware of the need for updating the GIS&T BoK, but their
approaches differ: the United States focuses on updating
the BoK itself, while the Europeans aim their attention toward the workforce demands with the EU-funded project
"Geographic Information: Need to Know," integrated by 31
partners and 25 participating countries [67]. In the meantime, some authors [6] have proposed an agenda with a
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING MAGAZINE

SEPTEMBER 2017

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