3D Printing and Makerspaces in the School of the Future
A Makerspace is a form of digital crafting, a room filled with digital fabrication tools and innovative technology such as 3D printers, laser cutters, sewing machines, and robots that allow you to create things in new ways. In Norway, there are over 50 Makerspaces, and many schools have plans to acquire their own Makerspace for teachers and students. Many of the tools, such as 3D printers, have now become more affordable, making it possible for schools to have their own printers.
Digital fabrication tools and 'making' can become a crucial part of a teacher's work in creating teaching aids, but also in training students in 'making' activities. Perhaps in the future, we won't buy concrete materials for mathematics classes, but instead, download a file that we then 3D print or use with a laser cutter.
Digital Fabrication for Teacher Students
Several teachers mention having digital fabrication tools but are unsure how to integrate them into their profession. To explore how digital fabrication can be used to create teaching aids, we conducted four workshops with teacher students at the university's learning lab. There, students learned how to create digital models in 2D and 3D and how to use 3D printers, laser cutters, and vinyl cutters. We developed the method 'Find, Adapt, Create, and Share' (FACS) as an explorative approach to learning digital fabrication.
- In the Find phase, students navigate existing resources online and use digital tools to produce these teaching aids.
- In the Adapt phase, students can modify and customize the teaching aids to better fit into their mathematics classroom.
- In the Create phase, which is the most complex, students have the skills to design their own teaching aids as 2D or 3D models and produce them using digital fabrication tools.
All phases are infused with a culture of sharing, a crucial aspect of the Maker culture.
Published Article in the International Journal for Child-Computer-Interaction
After Susanne and Henrik presented the project at the Fablearn conference in Copenhagen in 2022, the authors were invited to a special issue in the International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction (https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/international-journal-of-child-computer-interaction). The extended article was published in the journal as open access in March 2024 and can be read here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2024.100643
