5: Drone Coding Lab

 Experience 

LINK to Tello Drone in Action 

In today’s lab, we operated the Tello Drone by utilizing the DroneBlocks app to code the device. The experience was enjoyable but had complications that were not expected. Although instructions were followed, the Tello Drone did take a minute to connect with the DroneBlocks app. One tip I would give users is to match the Wi-Fi name with the connection in the app. For example, our drone’s Wi-Fi name was jellyfish, so in the DroneBlocks app when you see Tello-XXXXXX we had to type in jellyfish for the device to connect. Once the drone was up and running, it performed interesting maneuvers. I have attached a video to showcase the drone in action. Some coding script items used were takeoff, spin, loop, and land. Unfortunately, our group and classmates encountered issues with the drone. The takeoff button would turn gray, the drone would no longer correctly follow the code, and for some, their drone would not land automatically. I found that this could all be caused by the drone overheating, a low battery, dim lighting, and/or faulty wiring. Although the sailing was not smooth, the experience was a teaching moment, enjoyable, and memorable.

 In the Classroom 

Working with Tello Drones in the classroom can be beneficial to teach students about the ISTE standards listed below. Connections to content subjects can also occur through the application of CT and CS concepts associated with the Tello Drone. In the future, I hope to incorporate the device into my classroom! 

LINK to Coding Curriculum Blog 

 ISTE CT Standards 

1d) Develop resilience and perseverance when approaching CS and CT learning experiences, build comfort with ambiguity and open-ended problems, and see failure as an opportunity to learn and innovate. 

2a) Nurture a confident, competent, and positive identity around computing for every student.

3b) Apply effective teaching strategies to support student collaboration around computing, including pair programming, working in varying team roles, equitable workload distribution, and project management.

4a) Design CT activities where data can be obtained, analyzed, and represented to support problem-solving and learning in other content areas.

5c) Use a variety of instructional approaches to help students frame problems in ways that can be represented as computational steps or algorithms to be performed by a computer.