STIC:Earli2016-3Dworkshop

Digital design and fabrication workshop

Daniel K. Schneider, TECFA, Faculty of psychology and educational sciences, University of Geneva

Very rough draft

EARLI Special interest Group “Text and Graphics Comprehension”

Geneva, July, 2016

Abstract

Physical visualizations (or physicalizations) can promote cognition through a variety of mechanisms, notably easier perception, hands-on manipulation and enhanced interaction with other participants. We can distinguish several types of physical visualizations, according to three dimensions: active/passive, kit/whole, digitally enhanced/non digital. In this workshop we will focus on two kinds of visualizations, non-digital construction kits and whole visualizations.

(1) Construction kits allow creating and manipulating visualizations from building blocks. In education, construction kits, also known as expressive media or manipulatives, allow interactive exploration of designs, concepts and roles. Physical visualizations can for example represent tabular quantitative data or more qualitative data like the state of a project or a system. Construction kits to create such visualization include a set of tokens that can be assembled into something with a new functionality (i.e. visualizations in our case) according to predefined rules. (2) Whole visualizations are created digitally and then rendered entirely by a 3D printer or other fabrication device. Typically, these 3D visualizations are represent quantitative data, e.g. comparative time series, maps or functions with 3 variables.

In this workshop we first will present the concepts of physical visualization and construction kit and discuss a few examples that are either teacher or learner-centric. Then we will introduce some technical principles of digital design and fabrication, before discussing the practical requirements for teachers and/or students to learn and use digital design and fabrication technology. Finally, we will engage participants in some prototyping activity and have some brainstorming about "Comprehension of physicalizations" made with 3D printers.

Provisional program

Physical visualization

• (short talk)

Examples from http://dataphys.org/list/

• 5500 BC – Mesopotamian Clay Tokens
• 2007 – Global Cities: Elevation Maps of City Population
• 2008 – Activity Logging with LEGO Bricks
• 2010 – Data Sculptures in Class
• 2011 – Temperature measurement (Laser cut Time Series)
• 2015 – Touching Air: Necklace Shows Air Pollution
• 2015 – Canadian Federal Election Explained with LEGOs
• 2015 – Passim: Visual Reconceptualisation of Spatial Theories

Digital design and fabrication in education

• Digital design and fabrication in education (talk)

Places for digital design and fabrication

• MIT (can build almost anything)
• FabLab Amsterdam (public)
• FacLab Sergy-Pointoise
• Fablab TECFA (machines owned by 1 person and his students, not a Fablab)

See also: Tour de Fablab

Introduction to 3D printing

• Workflow of 3D printing

Online drawing tools:

• https://www.3dslash.net/ (Mindcraft-like)
• https://www.tinkercad.com/ (Easiest Drawing Tool)

More tools:

• See Computer-aided design and manufacturing

Specialized tools for creating visualizations (not yet available)

• MakerVis video: http://www.aviz.fr/makervis

Hands on

Sample visualizations

Shown in the workshop:Running activity visualization beads

• Golden Ratio and Fibonacci's Sequence by ypsimon, published Dec 9, 2015

Let's prototype some physical data visualizations

Brainstorming

• Discuss a simple idea with your neighbors
• Make sure that your "thing" either represents data or that a few "things" allow to create data visualizations
• Try to find something that visualizes states or achievement of activities

For prototyping, there are four options for this workshop:

In the tradition

• Take a sheet of paper and draw

Parameterization of necklace beads

• Play with Running activity visualization beads
  • Click on customize (green button)
  • Select on Customizer (Red app)
• Transfer to an education or research subject

Lego sculptures

• Sculpt cool Lego bricks with 3Dslashable LEGO compatible bricks
  • Either use the customize (green button) plus 3D Slash customizer app (registration required)
  • Or install the app on your computer: https://www.3dslash.net/features_downloads.php and download an STL file from here

Draw from scratch

• https://www.tinkercad.com/

Resources

3D printing

Tools

• Netfabb Studio Basic - STL positioning/repair (Win/Mac/Linux)
• MeshLab - Mesh repair/merger (Win/Linux)
• Sketchup (3D Modeling tool)
• Sculptris (3D Sculpting tool)
• OpenScad (Win/Mac/Linux). 3D Programming
• Autodesk® 123D™ (Free Autodesk CAD/3D tools for PCs and tablets, large downloads)
• Repetierhost, a popular program to control 3D printers, also includes an interface to run slicers.

Sites

• http://thingiverse.com
• Shapeways, a site where people sell their designs (you decide how to render it)

Computerized embroidery

• Computerized embroidery (overview article)
• Stitch Era embroidery software

Design and fabrication in schools

• 3D printers in education
• Fab labs in education
• Discussion
• Impressions de mes cours pilote STIC IV.

EduTechWiki

Overviews

• Fab lab
• Tour de Fablab
• Computerized embroidery in education
• 3D printers in education

D&T in education

• Fab labs in education
• Computerized embroidery in education
• Design and technology in England's national curriculum

Embroidery

• Computerized embroidery
• Elna 8300 (small embroidery machine)
• Stitch Era embroidery software Tutorials for this software

3D printing

• 3D printing (overview)
• OpenScad beginners tutorial and Doblo factory
• Sketchup 3D printable objects tutorial

Music

• Music notation software et MusicXML
• MIDI
• Music education technology

Teaching

• STIC IV

Other resources

• See various other articles of interest.