EDU616: Week 7 Integrating Technology Webliography Paper

EDU616 Week 4 Integrating Technology Webliography Paper

1) Webliography: Develop an annotated webliography with 5-10 sites that you can use in your instruction.

• Onshape Self Paced Courses / Learning Portal (https://learn.onshape.com/): Really great for allowing students to learn how to design and model in Onshape at their own pace. I have students do the different examples both in class and outside of the classroom. In particular I have my students start with Part Design Using Part Studios where they begin with simple models and quickly ramp up in complexity. Usually I have them do the first four examples within the module, and then everything else they do is gravy. It gives students a simple and straightforward set of examples each focused on a specific 3D modeling tool. Onshape has plenty of other modules on their learning portal which have come in handy when students get to more complex projects (mainly independent). I also have found their email newsletter, even if skimmed, to be quite useful to give students tool usage precedent or modeling tips.
• The Edge By Bantam Tools Podcast (Apple Podcasts): A really great podcast about all things digital fabrication. I’m having students review and bring questions about episodes this year. I have never used podcasts as a way to get students to explore on their own within my classes. After students listen to an episode of their choice I am having them reflect on three things: the general topics covered, terms they had to look up don’t know, and things they thought were pretty cool and would like to share. Students are doing this work on a wiki project page on PowerSchool Learning (Haiku) and it’s public to the rest of the class. The podcast is full of interesting moments, talk about materials processing and digital fabrication tools I’ve never even heard of, and interesting futures thinking. I’m excited to see how both the podcast is received as well as how well the students take to basically doing a “book report” on a podcast episode.
• Business Model Canvas (https://youtu.be/QoAOzMTLP5s): if you do anything business focused, it’s a great tool to have everyone organize the direction of a project that has multiple people and factors involved. Can be made on a variety of different collaboration platforms, or just as a doc. I am starting to use this in order to centralize my entrepreneurship project documents as well as organize them.
• TinkerCAD Circuitry (https://www.tinkercad.com/circuits): if you work with Arduino or general circuitry, a great way to have students tinker with virtual breadboards, etc, or document their circuits from class to class! You can animate as well as test sensors and motors. I utilize this to model for students how example circuits are put together, and it’s a great resource for either homework or students who are out of class during lab days.
• Google Sites (sites.google.com): I’m having my independent study students document their projects using google sites this year. It’s a great way to keep them accountable and have them be able to show off their work to classroom visitors or each other as we go forward. (http://bit.ly/stemcapstone).
• The Free Beginner’s Guide to 3D Printing: (https://3dprintingindustry.com/3d-printing-basics-free-beginners-guide): A really good resource that includes the history of and general practices surrounding 3D printing, good for students during guided research.
• 3D Hubs Knowledge Bank (https://www.3dhubs.com/knowledge-base/): A great resource to use with students during guided research. All the industry info and technical specifications you need to know related to designing parts and 3D printing varieties.
• Ultimaker Cura Support Guide (https://ultimaker.com/en/resources/52340-quality): A solid visual reference for students as they begin to understand CAM and how you can change settings in Cura for various types of quality, strength, and part material usage or processing time improvements.

2) Technology Integration: Choose one website or tech tool to enhance a lesson. Carry out the lesson. Write a reflection on what you did and how it affected the students’ learning. Include strengths and weaknesses of the technology integration:

In the two days prior to winter break this last week I utilized the Onshape Learning Portal to reinforce and check in on my students ability with sketching in Onshape. In the past I have never utilized the CAD sketching exercises as basic sketching is fairly easy to understand after a brief lesson on it. This time I chose to utilize it as a way for me to measure who may need help as we move towards designing USB flash drive enclosures using Onshape. Intermediate to advanced skill in sketching is critical and makes it easier for students to bring more complex designs to life easily. In the past my students have expressed lack of clarity with the exercises as a weakness of the learning portal. Sometimes steps seem skipped, but it’s because they’re in the image and not plainly explained with the instructional text. To mitigate this in the future I may include some videos and better review how to navigate the tutorials, but with this sketching exercise it didn’t seem to be an issue.
What I like about using tutorials through the learning portal: it allows students to go at their own pace, and in most cases help each other. Especially with my classes that are 20-24 students it’s very hard to model and instruct from a projector and troubleshoot at the same time. With the learning portal I am free to move around the room and help students as needed or set-up at a table to help students in smaller groups. What I have been working to make easier is the transition into work via our LMS. Sometimes a few students will get confused navigating the learning portal and lose motivation to work, so I have started to post direct links to tutorials via our LMS along with the written directions and goals for the day.