Intercultural potential of using unmanned aerial vehicles in the context of multidisciplinary research

Abstract

This article describes an experience of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to create cultural and educational videos with their further demonstration and discussion in online intercultural communication between 10 students from Indonesia and 10 students from China. Direct outreach to the students was provided in online mode due to the quarantine posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, an issue arose with respect to the use of UAVs for creating cultural and educational content following the rules of physical distance. The experiment revealed five affordances of UAVs such as (1) provision of visual and aural feelings of being in a place; (2) provision of details on a circular route beyond the human eye level; (3) provision of landscape overviews; (4) provision of detailed observations at higher altitudes, and (5) ability to fly to a specific area. Suggestions and conclusions made upon this research can be found useful in intercultural learning and multidisciplinary studies in Kazakhstan higher education.