So I couldn’t make today’s class, and boy oh boy did I feel the difference between guided learning when you don’t know anything about a topic, vs. doing it on your own early in the morning. My 3D designs are basically a disaster. I’m not sure what the class did, but I’ll rework (restart?) them next week. However, tinkering around with Tinkercad was still fun! Kind of hard at first, but once I understood a bit more about how it would create shapes, and the ways it manipulated them, it got a little easier to work with.
SO, cross curricular activities with 3D design and printing. I imagine that it would be extremely versatile in this capacity! We did a unit on simple machines in my practicum – designing and printing these machines, and seeing how they function as a tangible 3D object, seems like a great idea. I didn’t find it, but I imagine you can get Tinkercad to work with specific guidelines/parameters? For example, if you want a line to be 4 feet long, and there exists a way to program this information, then you could pretty much combine Math and Design with whatever other units you are working on. As well, it seems to present an interesting dimension when considering inquiry-led learning, as students have the ability to potentially design and build things to augment their inquiry.
I think that for something like language revitalization, the example you provided is a great way to use technology and design in revitalization. For me, I find the potential for using manipulatives in building words as you become familiar with them would be fun and something younger grades would enjoy. I know that, were it my practicum class, I could do a work of the day and put it on the overhead, and the students would love getting up and creating it from 3D cut letters. I like that you mentioned that the DSC didn’t have permission to print/provide the lək̓ʷəŋən letters, as this is something that would have to be carefully considered – on your own, and then in whichever district you are working in. Get permission first!
I taught my practicum at grade 4/5, and there are definitely pros and cons. The cons are that I will loose a lot of my students to goofing around on the screens. I wouldn’t be able to be everywhere at once, and it would happen. As well, for those who aren’t as tech literate, it might be fairly onerous for them, as I found it pretty difficult to get started.
The pros, I think, outweigh this: for those students who do engage, they’ll have a start with a tool and resource that they can benefit from for the rest of their lives. It would benefit them for the rest of their education, and then potentially afterward as well, be it for professional or artistic/creative avenues. One of my neighbors does lots of 3D modeling, and has printed new parts for his vacuums in his shop space. This surprised me, but it is cool. There is no denying having the potential to create parts for specific needs is very cool indeed.
Here are my disastrous 3d images. Yikes. This video was no substitute for classtime, but it is nice that it exists.
