This Anchorage High School is Bringing Drones into the Classroom

When Lee Butterfield was a high school student, he felt frustrated. What he learned inside of the classroom seemed two decades behind what was happening outside the classroom, in the real world, he said.

Now, as an educator, he can affect a change.

“The goal is to always be out front — cut these kids loose and put them in a place where they can grow,” said Butterfield, a 34-year-old South High School teacher.

Butterfield’s latest high-tech addition to an Anchorage classroom: unmanned aircraft systems, or drones.

He isn’t just using the drones as examples in a class. Butterfield is working with Alaska Aerial Media, a production company, to craft an entire class around teaching students how to operate drones and preparing them for jobs in a growing, global commercial industry.

“It’s beyond the cutting edge,” Butterfield said of the new class.