3D printing is bringing us closer to the world of Star Trek, where food appears on demand and bodies are fixed with the wave of a beeping remote. However, we have a ways to go before this new technology makes Star Trek a reality. We have a 3D printer at our school and it is comically meditative to watch it exude layer after layer of melted plastic that, if you have the patience to sit there long enough, eventually becomes something. However, even though our school doesn’t have the biggest and best 3D printer and it’s painfully slow, our students are using it to make model parts for auto shop class and to practice using CAD, which isn’t a feat to laugh at. According to “futurists, 3-D printing will make life as we know it today barely recognizable in 50 to 75 years” (Federico-O'Murchu, 2014). I can see that we are on the way, and our students would benefit from proficiency in the tool and an understanding of the vast potential it has to solve problems. I think, even if a student isn’t going into science or design, it would be helpful for our youth to be familiar with 3D printing so that they can use it for tasks that we adults can’t even imagine yet. Furthermore, Federico-O’Murchu states, “companies will soon be able to manufacture goods domestically, with virtually no wasted materials and no need for international outsourcing.” Read: career opportunities for our students, and opportunities in virtually every field, from medicine, science, military, food manufacturing, zoology, and even fashion.
All Borison’s examples of food-related printing just describe how printers are making cool shaped food, not how they are actually creating food from scratch. So the cows still have to be slaughtered to make ravioli, even if a 3D printer is shaping the pasta and filling it with the beef. In conclusion, while articles like Eadicicco’s “23 useful things you can make with a 3-D printer” (2015) show the potential for everyday objects you can print at home to make your life easier, I would really like to see the bigger picture in order to understand how schools can use this technology, and I would also like to see information from educators, not just 3D printer manufacturers. Imagine if you had a 3D printer instead of a Lego® set when you were a kid; what would life be like now,. You could print your own mini-figures, your own blocks, and you could iterate on new designs as quickly as your imagination (and your printer) would allow...Students can have an idea, design it, print it, and if it doesn’t work, make it again. The make it again part – that’s the powerful part. References
Borison, R. (2014, September 05). From Oreos To Nutella - The Latest 3D Printed Foods Are All 100% Edible. Retrieved July 05, 2016, from http://www.businessinsider.com/3d-printed-foods-2014-9 Eadicicco, L. (2015, February 18). 23 useful things you can make with a 3-D printer. Retrieved July 05, 2016, from http://www.businessinsider.com/useful-3d-printer-projects-2015-2# Federico-O'Murchu, L. (2014, May 11). How 3-D printing will radically change the world. Retrieved July 05, 2016, from http://www.cnbc.com/2014/05/09/will-3-d-technology-radically-change-the-world.html McCue, T. (2011, November 1). 3D Printing Will Transform Education. Retrieved July 05, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2011/11/01/3d-printing-will-transform-education/#209447622b7f
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EDET678Emerging Technologies Archives
August 2016
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