3D Printing:
Transforming CTE, Jobs, and Us
By Mary Chase
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| “Maker Bot Industries- Replicator 2- 3D Printer” by Creative Tools is licensed under CC BY-2.0 |
Introduction
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| “3D Printing” by CuriousityII is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Transforming our jobs
As with any other technology, if it can make money for someone, it will proliferate. The 3D printer is no exception.
We are at the forefront of a revolution, where every part of the global economy will be disrupted. Manufacturing items in massive factories and then spending a fortune transporting those items to stores will be replaced by emailing a digital file to be printed close to the customer. Think of the millions of dollars in fuel costs that will be saved...Best of all, customers will have greater control over the design of the products they desire” (Martinez and Stager, 2012).
Watch this video from CNBC about “The Future of Shopping: 3D Printing”.
The idea that individual pieces and parts can be printed in one’s home or even in a mobile unit is revolutionary, indeed. There are countless parts stores around the world. These stores employ hundreds of thousands of people and make millions of dollars annually. Now, rather than relying on these stores to get the parts that we need, we can get parts on demand. Once-obsolete parts will be able to be recreated. Personalization will take off.
Watch this video to get a glimpse of how businesses are already using 3D printing as well as some ideas for the potential future of this technology: 3D Printing: The Business Opportunities
Until all parts’ codes are readily available for laypeople to easily print on their own like stock pictures, individuals will need to either learn coding to create their own parts or they will employ others to do this for them. Certainly, this technology and this capability would be most beneficial to those who already work in industries dependent upon parts (like plumbers, electricians, carpenters, and mechanics). Just think of how much easier it would be to create the exact part that you need, and to be able to do it whenever and wherever you want! Before that can happen, however, they must first be trained in the latest technology.
Until all parts’ codes are readily available for laypeople to easily print on their own like stock pictures, individuals will need to either learn coding to create their own parts or they will employ others to do this for them. Certainly, this technology and this capability would be most beneficial to those who already work in industries dependent upon parts (like plumbers, electricians, carpenters, and mechanics). Just think of how much easier it would be to create the exact part that you need, and to be able to do it whenever and wherever you want! Before that can happen, however, they must first be trained in the latest technology.
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Transforming our schools
One of the greatest sources for producing skilled laborers is through our formal educational system. Career and Technical Education (CTE) and vocational programs around the globe give high school students free exposure and training in the field of their choice before they ever graduate. Like everything else, however, these programs need an overhaul. |
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CTE graduates are at least 3 times more likely than are college preparatory students to delay their pursuit of college, to leave college without graduating, or to pursue a community college or trade college (Laird et al., 2006), which is problematic because many more science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers now require a 4-year degree (Carnevale, Smith, & Strohl, 2010). Ultimately, CTE graduates with interests in science or technology are more likely to become medical assistants or drafters rather than pharmacists or engineers (Packard & Babineau, 2009). (Packard, et al 2012).
Students in Career and Technical Education or vocational programs are not typically students with high interests or aptitudes in technology. Matter of fact, many students in these programs even struggle to read. According to an article “An Oral Reading Fluency Assessment for Young Adult Career and Technical Education Students”, students in Job Corps programs are “twice as likely to have low literacy as their age peers” (Mellard, Woods, and Desa, 2012). The article continues on to say that
Only 40 percent of these young adults, including those with high school diplomas, have sufficient reading skills to qualify for General Education Development tests (GED) preparation course when they enter Job Corps (Burghardt et al., 2001). Furthermore, a descriptive study of one Job Corps center found 33 percent of students self-reported having learning disabilities, which is nearly seven times the prevalence rate in the general population (American Psychiatric Association, 1994; Mellard, Woods, & Md Desa, in press). (Mellard, Woods, and Desa, 2012).
Currently, students in CTE or vocational programs are typically not necessarily looking to enter a career that would require a 4-year degree. In some cases, it is because they are simply not interested in those types of careers, sometimes it is because they don’t want to pursue something that will require that much more education, but sometimes, it is because they lack the requisite skills. CTE and vocational programs are then adapted to, and in some cases, even designed for students with limited academic abilities. This is not just a phenomenon found in the United States, either. Research done in Flanders, Belgium, has “demonstrated that technical and vocational schools are characterized by a less study oriented student culture than general schools” (Houtte and Stevens, 2009).
Career and Technical Education programs are designed for the types of previous and current students who have walked through their doors. Students who have not wanted to or were unable to pursue college degrees dictated a program designed with average or lower-level technical skill sets. These programs have sufficiently trained students entering into automotive, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, and medical assistant fields for decades. As times have changed, so has the technology. The technology that is being used in these fields slowly filters its way down to high school training programs as schools can afford it. At this point, however, with technology expanding exponentially, even the once-basic CTE programs are now forced to update. No longer can these programs target students with limited technological skills. Students wishing to enter these fields will need to become proficient in the use of 3D printing and coding. They will have to learn how to troubleshoot problems with this equipment and how to program it to create the components they need. These skills are generally not being currently being taught in a regular educational setting either, so it will likely fall in the hands of CTE programs first. With the addition of 3D printing in both the educational and professional settings, the game is changing.
Fabrication is only beginning to take off, but it is already changing the way we think. Now, we are not confined by the availability of parts and pieces, we are only limited to our imagination and technical ability. Computational thinking is everywhere. We have this “new form of citizen empowerment enabled by 3D printing” (Ratto and Ree, 2012). Not only do people get the satisfaction of creating exactly what they need/want, but they now are able to share their knowledge with others with just a click of a button. Places like Thingiverse allow for creativity to be shared, built off of, and adapted similar to the way people connect on social networking.
It has also allowed for people to create things without needing traditional craftsmanship skills. For instance, one can now 3D print jewellery without needing soldering skills. Another way that fabrication has transformed people is by “unlocking latent entrepreneurship” by allowing “‘amateur inventors’ who harbour innovative ideas for products to move those designs from conception to market reality” by “bypass[ing]...barriers” like the overhead cost associated with research and development, prototyping, and production (Ratto and Ree, 2012).
Just as computing has changed the world as we know it, so too has 3D printing, even if we haven’t seen the full explosion of it just yet. We are on the cusp of huge breakthrough technology being as commonplace in our homes and schools as computers or laser printers. The difference, however, is that the laser printer simply helped us to distribute knowledge, ideas, and information to others more quickly and efficiently. The 3D printer is already helping us to create, restore, and develop ideas that were only once possible in the movies. Technology like this will not remain in the upper echelons of education for long. It has some of its more promising applications in areas once thought to be nearly-void of computing technology. Moreover, the students who were once deemed unable to learn/use this technology (either by themselves or others) are going into careers that will soon be relying on it. In order to better help our students prepare for their future, we must update our CTE and vocational training programs. These students must learn how to harness the computational thinking that had once been reserved for their STEM-focused, college-bound peers. We must demand more of our CTE programs so that they can demand more from their students. In the end, we will be producing the leaders of tomorrow’s innovative professionals, no matter the field they pursue. And who knows, perhaps the next time that I need to have my washing machine repaired, the repairman will be able to print the necessary part instead of ordering it...and my laundry won’t get backed up waiting for it to get here.
Career and Technical Education programs are designed for the types of previous and current students who have walked through their doors. Students who have not wanted to or were unable to pursue college degrees dictated a program designed with average or lower-level technical skill sets. These programs have sufficiently trained students entering into automotive, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, and medical assistant fields for decades. As times have changed, so has the technology. The technology that is being used in these fields slowly filters its way down to high school training programs as schools can afford it. At this point, however, with technology expanding exponentially, even the once-basic CTE programs are now forced to update. No longer can these programs target students with limited technological skills. Students wishing to enter these fields will need to become proficient in the use of 3D printing and coding. They will have to learn how to troubleshoot problems with this equipment and how to program it to create the components they need. These skills are generally not being currently being taught in a regular educational setting either, so it will likely fall in the hands of CTE programs first. With the addition of 3D printing in both the educational and professional settings, the game is changing.
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| “Acrylic embedments 3d-print encapsulation by Midton Acrylics” by Craig Cameron is licensed under CC BY-SA3.0 |
Transforming us
Fabrication is only beginning to take off, but it is already changing the way we think. Now, we are not confined by the availability of parts and pieces, we are only limited to our imagination and technical ability. Computational thinking is everywhere. We have this “new form of citizen empowerment enabled by 3D printing” (Ratto and Ree, 2012). Not only do people get the satisfaction of creating exactly what they need/want, but they now are able to share their knowledge with others with just a click of a button. Places like Thingiverse allow for creativity to be shared, built off of, and adapted similar to the way people connect on social networking. It has also allowed for people to create things without needing traditional craftsmanship skills. For instance, one can now 3D print jewellery without needing soldering skills. Another way that fabrication has transformed people is by “unlocking latent entrepreneurship” by allowing “‘amateur inventors’ who harbour innovative ideas for products to move those designs from conception to market reality” by “bypass[ing]...barriers” like the overhead cost associated with research and development, prototyping, and production (Ratto and Ree, 2012).
Check out this video about how 3D printing personalized mannequins may change the way we design and even buy clothes.
Conclusion
Just as computing has changed the world as we know it, so too has 3D printing, even if we haven’t seen the full explosion of it just yet. We are on the cusp of huge breakthrough technology being as commonplace in our homes and schools as computers or laser printers. The difference, however, is that the laser printer simply helped us to distribute knowledge, ideas, and information to others more quickly and efficiently. The 3D printer is already helping us to create, restore, and develop ideas that were only once possible in the movies. Technology like this will not remain in the upper echelons of education for long. It has some of its more promising applications in areas once thought to be nearly-void of computing technology. Moreover, the students who were once deemed unable to learn/use this technology (either by themselves or others) are going into careers that will soon be relying on it. In order to better help our students prepare for their future, we must update our CTE and vocational training programs. These students must learn how to harness the computational thinking that had once been reserved for their STEM-focused, college-bound peers. We must demand more of our CTE programs so that they can demand more from their students. In the end, we will be producing the leaders of tomorrow’s innovative professionals, no matter the field they pursue. And who knows, perhaps the next time that I need to have my washing machine repaired, the repairman will be able to print the necessary part instead of ordering it...and my laundry won’t get backed up waiting for it to get here.
Resources
Houtte, M. V., & Stevens, P. A. (2009). Study Involvement of Academic and Vocational
Students: Does Between-School Tracking Sharpen the Difference? American Educational Research Journal, 46(4), 943-973. doi:10.3102/0002831209348789
Martinez, S. & Stager, G. (2013). Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the
Classroom. Torrance: Constructing Modern Knowledge Press
Mellard, D., Woods, K. and Md Desa, Z. (2012), An Oral Reading Fluency Assessment for Young
Adult Career and Technical Education Students. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice,
27: 125–135. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5826.2012.00358.
Packard, B. W.-L., Leach, M., Ruiz, Y., Nelson, C. and DiCocco, H. (2012), School-to-Work
Transition of Career and Technical Education Graduates. The Career Development Quarterly,
60: 134–144. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2012.00011.
Ratto, M., & Ree, R. (2012). Materializing information: 3D printing and social change. First
Monday, 17(7). doi:10.5210/fm.v17i7.3968
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