The Importance of Practitioner/Academic Teams in Advanced Surveying Technology Classes

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

1-1-2015

Description

While technological advances have permeated most of society over the past decade and more, those advances have been especially rapid with surveying technology. University professors have the theoretical background needed to understand how newly developed technologies work, as well as their limitations and optimal uses. However, the nature of the changing academic calendar means that they may get hands-on work with the technology for one semester a year or even less frequently. This, coupled with the variety of other duties that a professor needs to attend to, means that few university professors get the daily practice with new surveying technology needed to master its use. The true masters of this technology are the practitioners who work with it in their daily practices. Unfortunately, they are rarely proficient in the art of teaching and rarely are as familiar with how a given class fits into the overall educational structure of a well-planned curriculum. One potential solution for this dilemma is to structure classes dealing with rapidly changing technology such that the class is under the direction of a university professor who is responsible for the course structure and assessment, yet has a practitioner to assist with instruction on using the technology. This paper discusses the methods used in one class to pair up an industry practitioner with a university professor in an effort to deliver the best possible educational experience to the students in the class.

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS