More On Education Engining The “How-To” Of 3DP Implementation: Empowering Your Leap Up The Learning Curve of 3D Printing/DigiFab Understanding…

The Demand For A Practical Education In 3DP Is Accelerating With The Soaring Interest In Our Transformative Technology: Meeting That Demand Will Require Novel Thinking About How To Teach, Tutor & Train In New Ways To Match New Paradigms & New Opportunities…

A Desire Line Demonstrated: Forget the institutional path, what do the people want, need and do...?! Thanks to "Brooklynite on the Ice" (antarcticiana.blogspot.com) and I quote: "...committed by the masses; a pure expression of democratic will, the people manifestly having voted with their feet..." Here is wayfaring as a metaphor for DIY/DIT education in 3DP tech.

A Desire Line Demonstrated: Forget the institutional path, what do the people want, need and do…?! Thanks to “Brooklynite on the Ice” (antarcticiana.blogspot.com) and I quote: “…committed by the masses; a pure expression of democratic will, the people manifestly having voted with their feet…” Here is wayfaring as a metaphor for DIY/DIT education in 3DP tech.

In recent posts, I’ve started outlining how I think “i3E” is likely to drive 3DP implementation. (Our i3E mantra stands for Inspiration, Education, Entrepreneurship & Economic development.)

The most important driver here at the start of the process—singularly and socially—is education. Teaching the tech will make all the difference in the “how-to” of integrating 3DP into our commercial and common-good betterment—especially at our “action unit” of the local community.

In my last post on this topic, I “bulleted” a number of concepts in the “teaching of” at our 3DP Revolution—the new and necessary education in how-to implement 3DP in our real world. Here is a repeat of that list—followed by my deeper dive into the first of these specific ideas:

  • Teaching-The-Teachers Salon
  • The Classroom On 3DP Steroids
  • Maker Space Grassroots-Ed
  • Drop-Out Drop-In
  • Workforce Development
  • Economic Development Organization (EDO) Academies
  • Startup/Ramp-Up On-The-Job-Training (OJT)
  • Volunteering To Advance
  • The “3DP Guild-Gang”

Teaching-The-Teachers Salon

First, we need to educate educators. The folks who can multiple “The 3DP Word” across groups of interested students—even if they are already teachers—of the technology. This does NOT need to take place in traditional educational settings. In fact, formal, credentialed and/or institutional educator norms are probably the last avenue of advance—while eventually a necessary one in saturation or end-game scenarios—in our kick-off educational effort. But—in today’s enriched, enabling and omni-present tech environment—we certainly do not need to start with raising barriers to access or empowerment via standard modes of teaching colleges…

3DP is—uniquely—a hyper-local, grassroots, DIY/DIT (Do-It-Together)-capable technology. I’ve held forth here before about the inherent “democratization” engine of 3DP. That is the ability of this revolutionary tech to empower the individual tinkerer or artisan or innovator on the kitchen table, at garage bench or in the incipient eCottage.

With auto-empowerment in mind, let’s talk about “desire lines.” This phrase is a delightful term art in economic development, travel patterns and commuting vectors that we can borrow to illustrate the democratization-power of 3DP.

(From left) Brad Chapman, Technology Specialist at Kauffman Labs, conceptualizes with his hands for Panelist Dr. Haytham Elhawary, Exec Director, Zahn Innovation Center, CCNY, CUNY --- who had just spoken at “Lessons Learned: 3D Printers in the Classroom,” at “Inside 3D Printing NY” trade show at the Javits Center on 3 April 2014.

(From left) Brad Chapman, Technology Specialist at Kauffman Labs, conceptualizes with his hands for Panelist Dr. Haytham Elhawary, Exec Director, Zahn Innovation Center, CCNY, CUNY — who had just spoken at “Lessons Learned: 3D Printers in the Classroom,” at “Inside 3D Printing NY” trade show at the Javits Center on 3 April 2014.

When it’s important to them, people find their own paths to desired goals. Regardless of the prescribed way-faring, “logical” routes or preformed infrastructure that may—or may not—be in place to get them there.

These informal “paths” are desire lines—what folks on the ground wish were in place to enable new ways of “getting there.” When these “lines” do not exist, people cobble them up—until demonstrated demand eventually forces the infrastructure into existence.

The same holds true with education in 3DP technology. People want the knowledge to get into the 3DP game. Some see this demonstrated desire as an opportunity to both empower people—and create a cadre of believer/teachers who will geometrically multiply that effort in enablement.

(Yeah, “cadre.” A framework, nucleus or core group of often DIY/DIT trained, unified and inspired people who are capable of assuming/taking control and educating others to a like-level of action-making/taking. This venerable word gets great use in revolutions—like our current 3DP-driven upheaval. This cadre vector applies to our teaching the teacher…in this iteration perhaps “barefoot pedagogues”…)

So, if we eschew the educational establishment—at least for the moment—where are the 3DP desire lines and self-coalescing cadre driving us?

The ultimate “coalescer” in our grassroots change-making is the Internet. The Internet empowers desire-line creation. The Internet enables the DIY/DIT education that drives our 3DP community-level action.

Think in terms of online education and the small-group learning. Just-Enough-Training (JET) make things happen. And, JET begins to build 3DP-revolution momentum. Especially in training the trainers, the teachers, the cadre…at the hyper-local level of our communities.

3DP & EDU & KIDS: Our Posterized Invitation...

3DP & EDU & KIDS: Our Posterized Invitation…

Thus: capture the small classes by the DIY experts on video and narrowcast them, Webinar them and live stream them on the Internet. Voila: grassroots online ed for the 3DP cadre—and everyone else. The Webinar “teachers’ college.” The Meetups as TeachUps. The Skillshare concept. The General Assembly mode writ large. The curricula cobbled up by cadre in the trenches along those Desire Lines…

We have much more to talk about as we work our way down our list of 3DP-education “bullets” for action.

C’mon Back!

LAND

 

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