Ep. 34: Revolutionise learning experiences with the power of 3D Printing
Joachim Cohen:
Welcome to The Virtual Staffroom, a podcast made for teachers by teachers, and all with a dash of educational technology thrown in. My name is Joachim Cohen, and today I am joined by Yvette Poshoglian, my comrade in tech and another awesome member of the Technology 4 Learning team.
Yvette Poshoglian:
We'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land in which we're recording today, the Cadigal people of the Eora Nation. And we pay our respect to elders past and present, and also pay our respect to other traditional elders and any other indigenous people on whose country or through whose country this broadcast will travel.
Joachim Cohen:
Have you been to the Great Barrier Reef? Traversed the Harbor Bridge? Many of our students haven't. And describing their size, their scale, and their attributes is a challenge and one that takes on an extra complication when a student may have a vision impairment. Today on The Virtual Staffroom, we see how with the power of 3D printing this process just got a whole lot more inclusive. Time to press print.
Yvette Poshoglian:
Here at The Virtual Staffroom and the New South Wales Department of Education, we're all about making learning experiences exciting, engaging and accessible, and also exploring the way the power of tech can help. Today, we're lucky enough to be joined by the team from the Department's Braille and Large Print Service, who have pioneered a revolutionary new library, not of books, but of 3D printable objects that make key aspects of the curriculum more accessible and tangible than ever before.
Joachim Cohen:
Let's dial them in. Nav, you are an absolute game changer. Thank you so much for joining us here on The Virtual Staffroom podcast.
Nav:
Thanks for having me here today, Joe. I just want to start off by saying thank you for having me, and I love your enthusiasm about this project.
Over the last few months, we've been building an STL library that anyone with a DOE email address can access. So this is a library that has STL files in it that you can get in, download, and print. So what an STL is is a 3D printable file that you can just download and print on your own time. There's no set up required. It's super simple. Just download it, send it to the printer, and hit go.
Joachim Cohen:
Oh, that is so exciting and so empowering, that is for sure. And the perfect description. I think everyone out there has either come across a 3D printer, seen a 3D-printed object that they could maybe access online and they've seen that dot STL, and you've explained that for them. That is fantastic.
Now, I want to take a step back for a moment. What drove you and the team to consider developing this library? Tell us a story of how this can impact a student's experience.
Nav:
Yeah. So this STL library is actually part of a bigger project that we've been working on over the last two, two and a half years now. So what we're looking at is how 3D prints can be used in the classroom for students with vision impairment and how they can enhance their learning experience.
So traditionally, students with vision impairment have access to resources like braille books, large-print books, e-texts, and things like that. Very two-dimensional resources, very simple, get the point across kind of resources. The 3D prints kind of come in as a supplementary resource to those traditional resources by taking a lot of that information and recontextualizing it in a way that the students can kind of get their hands on and feel.
So say for example you're teaching geography within the classroom. The student with vision impairment might get a stack of maps. So 2.5D diagrams, we call them PF diagrams in the industry. Essentially, what they are raised line drawings. So you would have a bunch of maps that the student could kind of piece together to make this picture of the world. But the world isn't flat like that. So when you bring in an actual globe that has braille markings on it, that has raised continents on it, that has a raised equator on it, that has color contrast for the students that have some visions still, that takes a lot of those maps and places them within one object that really contextualizes what that concept is.
Now, we've had stories with that particular resource. So we had a student that was studying geography. Her teacher requested the globe. We sent it out to her. And the feedback that we got was so amazing because this student just did not want to return the globe. And me being the type of person that I am, I just didn't have it in me to ask for it back. So we do have a bit of a loan period with these resources, but we let the student keep the globe for far longer than we normally would.
But what that also meant was that after the student had used the globe, her interest in geography kind of really expanded. So she was asking for so many more resources in that area. So she was asking for far more maps. She was asking for a lot more things like mountain topography, things like Arctic ice charts, and so many other resources in geography.
So students use these resources and it helps them kind of understand what it is that they like about learning and really helps them kind of find where it is that their interests lie.
Joachim Cohen:
Oh, Nav, that is a story that just warms the heart. Oh, I think everyone who's out there listening will now be wanting to jump in and access the library. Don't worry, it's in the show notes everyone, that's for sure.
But Nav, it's not just students with vision impairments. It's every student in the class that can benefit from these objects. Tell us about that.
Nav:
Yeah. So the approach that we kind of take with this project is that these resources, they're essential for some, but they're useful for all students. So when a student takes one of these resources out in the classroom, when a student with vision impairment takes one of these resources out in the classroom, the students around that student kind of also want to engage with it. They want to see what it is, they want to touch it, they want to feel it. And same for the teacher. They want to kind of incorporate this resource within their lesson plan because these resources show things that you might not be able to get across in say, a picture in a textbook or a shot in a documentary or something like that.
So one of the examples we have of this is a 3D print of Uluru. We've had this print sitting in our office space for quite some time. And we've had visitors come in and have a look at it and say things like, "I didn't actually know that Uluru looked like that. I thought it was much taller. I thought it was not as wide as it is." But when you finally see it from all perspectives, you really get to see it.
So that's what we're trying to do with these resources and that's why we want other kids in the classroom to use them and we want everybody to be able to get to them.
Joachim Cohen:
Nav, I can absolutely attest to that story as well. We have seen listeners, the amazing Uluru representation here in the T4L Lab. And I agree, it totally took me by surprise. And I reckon everyone out there's going to want to get their hands on these now. So Nav, can you tell us, how can we get our hands on them?
Nav:
Yeah. So we have now developed this STL library that anyone with a DOE email can access. So the link to the library will be in the show notes. And feel free to get in there and have a look at all the resource categories that we have. We have prints for astronomy, we have prints for biology, we have prints for anatomy, earth science, ancient history, modern history, Australian geography. There's just so many resources in there. And we're also just adding to this library as we go. So we're going to have discussions coming up around what we can do in English, what we can do in maths, what we can do in STEM and coding. And yeah, just keep building this library.
So yeah, get in there, get down into the show notes, get that link, download these files, print them, and have fun with them.
Joachim Cohen:
Oh, that is the best call to action ever. And if people are really keen to get in touch with you, tell you about some ideas they have for 3D-printed objects or ask questions, how can they do it, Nav?
Nav:
Yeah. So I am always available for a discussion about this. So if you do want to contact me, my email and phone number will be in the show notes as well. Feel free any time to give me a call, send me an email, shoot your ideas, because I want this resource to be as amazing as it can be. I want this to grow as big as it can grow. And I really want this to benefit as many teachers and as many students as it can. So any ideas you have, any feedback you have, any criticism you may have, let me know and we will talk about it.
Joachim Cohen:
Okie dokes. Everyone, a call to action. Pause this podcast right now, click on the show notes, and start exploring that library. But come back to us as soon as you can because up next, we have some quick links and tips to get you printing from Nav's library and your students creating as well. Nav, thank you for all you do for students and teachers in public schools across New South Wales.
Nav:
No, thank you so much for the opportunity, Joe, and to your amazing team and the amazing space that you have here. It's been an absolute pleasure.
Yvette Poshoglian:
Joe, I'm almost speechless with how empowering and enabling that awesome library is. So now we need to empower our listeners to get printing and to connect them with the tools they'll need to get colleagues and students creating tactile objects in the classroom as part of their next assignment or unit of work. Joe, what are some great resources we're talking about?
Joachim Cohen:
Yvette, I just love what you've said about making objects tactile to go along with student presentations and student work. So I was just thinking about geography and that amazing globe that Nav had. And imagine if you made it part of every assignment, that students had to produce something tactile so that their peers could actually get a real understanding of what they're talking about.
Yvette Poshoglian:
Well, even from the teacher perspective, it gives it a whole new layer of meaning with the way that we'd be teaching and even just talking about the way the colors impact the vision- impaired learners. To me, that was just something I'd never considered or knew anything about. So it really does take things into a new sphere, pardon the pun.
Joachim Cohen:
It does. It does. I love it. Absolutely. A whole new layer of learning for students at the same time as adding to the learning that they're already doing.
And we're so lucky, inside the stem.T4L Library, there are some great 3D design tools. So make sure you go and check out the stem.T4L Learning Library. They might want to jump into Tinkercad, into CoSpaces. Go and take a look at all the tools that are on there. We'll make sure we put a link into the show notes so that you're empowered with your students to get creating 3D objects. How exciting. And don't forget, Yvette, I think we had an addition of the magazine where we did a road test on 3D printers way back in the beginning.
Yvette Poshoglian:
It was. And there probably hasn't been an issue with the magazine that we've done that hasn't covered 3D printing. But I think hearing Nav and his line of work and the impact that this is going to have to one cohort of students, but also by extension the teachers and the other students in the classroom, it's really given rise to me thinking again about how powerful 3D printing can be.
And yes, we've mentioned in the magazines, we've done road tests on a lot of the printers available out there. But if you're listening and you want to get in touch and you're thinking that this could be something useful and you don't have one in your school, Nav mentioned that there's a borrowing system. You can borrow a 3D printer through the stem.T4L team. We've got those details in the show notes. We've got an email address to hit us up. Or you can buy one on EdBuy if you're thinking about going down that path.
Joachim Cohen:
Oh, 100%, Yvette. And can I tell you, in the last edition of the T4L Digital Drive-Thru, there was a segment by Greg all about 3D printing. So go back, make sure you take a look at that as well. You're right, 3D printing is everywhere. It is so exciting. Get to it everyone.
I think this might have been the most empowering episode we have ever recorded. And listeners, we want to see your 3D-printed braille objects or even your 3D-printed braille designs. Make sure you share them with us. Share them with your colleagues and let us know the experiences of your students.
And listeners, please let us know what you thought of our new format and our new take on what you need for 2022. And don't forget the whole T4L and Virtual Staffroom teams are here to walk along beside you and help you make whatever year you are listening to the podcast in your best ever year with tech.
This podcast has been produced by the masterful Jacob Druce, with the assistance and supreme coordination of many more members of the T4L team. Stay supreme, everyone. Get printing in 3D. And thanks for joining us.
Yvette Poshoglian:
Just a little note. Please be aware that all views expressed by the podcast presenters, that's us, are our personal opinions and not representative of the New South Wales Department of Education. Discussions aren't endorsements of third-party products, services, or events. And please note that as much as we sound like it, we're not experts in legalese, tech speak, or anything in between. We're just passionate people keen to boost technology for learning in the classroom, to help build the skills in your students, and to help you solve the problems of tomorrow. Do your due diligence, read further, and if we've got something wrong, let us know. We too are always learning and always improving.