Yes the title says it all folks. With Amazon unveiling their drone (video below), it is high time that schools jump on this bandwagon and join the first 15% of the twenty-first century. Drones have gone from being the toys of the rich to actual and vital tool to help schools run. What could go wrong?

As always people need to ask Why? This is a good question and let me give you a few reasons of why drones are needed in today’s schools.

Reason #1 – Inner school mail

If you work in a private school, you may be working on a campus with several buildings and more often than not, they have something called inner school mail. This is just the moving of documents from one office to another and usually involves a person hand delivering that. Man, what a waste of time!

Within school districts, this can ferry important and sensitve documents between schools. With drones, it can just be easily, reliably and quickly delivered from one school to another and most importantly, you know it is securely delivered because drones can’t read … probably.

Reason #2 – Returning library books

I am married to a great librarian and the time she spends hunting down overdue books is ridiculous and when those books aren’t found, then the school holds the student’s report card until the fine is paid.
UGH
With drones, these days are in the past! Students can easily summon a drone from the library to carry their book(s) back. In fact, the librarian can automate and send the drone to the classroom on the book due date and wait until the student returns it to the drone. So handy!

If the book is lost, then the parents can arrange to have a drone come to their house and they can put the money (or credit card) in an envelope and have the drone take it back to the school or the accounting department. Everyone wins since the drone can go anywhere, so it could go to a parent’s place of business (as long as it is within the city limits) even during a work day. I know that scores of parents will hear that buzz of the approaching drone and smile knowing that this problem will be resolved in a matter of minutes, not tens of minutes.

I know my wife will come home everyday and thank my for making her life a little bit better. I’ll just smile and know that the secret is with the drone 🙂

Reason 3 – Transporting students

Yeah – you read that correctly. Drones should replace buses within a few short months if politicians can see the potential. Think of it my good reader, fewer bus accidents, less taxes and school fees for transportation, less traffic in and around the school during the start and end of every school day. It sounds too good to be true!

Each student will have their very own drone, expanding already existing BYOD programs. Now it can stand for Bring Your Own Device & Drone (BYODD for short). What kid doesn’t want their own drone? The drone will be programmed by the school district to take each student from their home to the school. At school everyone will have their own designated LZ (landing zone for you layman’s). The logic is so piercingly simple it is painful to think about!

But we don’t need to stop there. Drones can also be used to shuttle student from one class to another. Imagine it – students NEVER late again. Sounds like a miracle doesn’t it? Trust in drones. They are the educator’s best friend I tell ya.

Reason 4 – Homework delivery

How many times have you heard this excuse “I forgot my homework at home.” or “I forgot my the assignment at school yesterday and so I couldn’t get it done at home.” Frustrating isn’t it. Now with drones, those excuses are so 2015.

Now students can send their drone with their homework assignment right to a teacher’s front door with the click of a button on their smartphone/computer. I know that teachers will sleep easy knowing that the entire student body can deliver anything to their personal home and sanctuary.

Gone are the days of excuses now that drones are here. If a student forgets their assignment at school, simply send a drone with a robotic hand to go to their locker and retrieve said materials. Nothing could be simpler!

Finally- They are damn cool

Now that we’ve covered the “boring” stuff, let’s get to why kids will want them. They are just really cool. I mean who doesn’t want their own drone. I know parents will be green with envy remembering how they trudged 13 miles to school while their little Johnny is whisked away in his very own drone.

So cool.

Safety

When we’re dealing with students we must always consider their safety. However, how many times have you turned on the news to hear that students were injured in a drone accident? I never have, now that doesn’t mean it never happens (or never will) but it has to be so low as to be of no importance.

This means that drones are safe! So pick up your drone and march it down to your school board today and demand they wake up and listen to the buzz of the future. The times aren’t a changing. They’ve already changed.

Have a thought about drones in schools? Leave a comment below.