Bringing Remote Sensing Education to Next Generation Platforms

Since iPad's release, schools have started using them as a tool to teach their curriculum. This has expanded with the release of iBooks Author, making it easy for anyone to produce a high quality textbook, and has given many educators and students an opportunity to make the switch to digital learning. ABC News San Diego reported on June 25, 2012, that “Nearly 26,000 Apple iPads will go to San Diego Unified School District classrooms this fall in what is being considered one of the largest iPad deployments for K-12 schools in the country.”

SeaSpace Corporation has seized upon this opportunity to continue its mission of educational outreach by creating a textbook on remote sensing that appeals to the grade 7-12 demographic. The working title is “Satellite Remote Sensing Basics and Interpretation by SeaSpace Corporation,” and it is expected to be released on the iTunes store around the beginning of 2013. As part of a summer internship, a student at Millersville University has participated in this project as one of the co-authors.

The iBook platform has advantages over paper textbooks in relation to teaching remote sensing, because it includes interactivity with imagery, real time feedback on quiz questions, zooming of images, playback of videos, and clicking to get definitions of key terms. This presentation will demonstrate these special capabilities. The SeaSpace iBook intends to be a basic introduction to students or anyone who is interested in learning about satellite remote sensing, and the iBook will focus on using real satellite imagery as examples. It is hoped that these strengths and the fact that the grade 7-12 demographic is technology-savvy, will help increase the public's knowledge about satellite remote sensing and its importance to our lives.