Margaret A. Powers

Adventures in 3D Printing

The past two weeks have been filled with exciting and challenging adventures in 3D Printing as I tried to achieve my first Networked Learning Project goal: make a sign.

I started by watching some beginner Tinkercad videos and then searching YouTube for any videos about making 3D printed signs in Tinkercad. I couldn’t find anything that was an exact match but I did find videos about making keychains and nametags. After watching them, I opened up Tinkercad and started working on my own design. It was great to be able to go back and rewatch parts of a video in one tab and jump back to my work in Tinkercad in another tab. I started by grouping a cylinder and a square together and then inserting a “round roof” shape as a hole in the cylinder. This created a little handle which would make it easy to hang the sign. Next, I added another thin square as a background for my words and finally, I inserted letters for the sign text.

My Tinkercad design and then final product!

I also found a really helpful video with Tinkercad keyboard shortcuts that I’ve watched a few times already. It made it much easier to navigate and make edits on the site. I started to compile all of the videos I watched and learned from in a Tinkercad YouTube Playlist so it would be easy to go back and watch them again and find (and share!) them for future reference.

I really wanted to see if I could use multiple colors of plastic in my sign but I had never done that in one print. I could not find an easy way (I hope to follow-up about this in a help forum) to tell when the print was hitting different layers so I ended up just watching it closely and pausing the print when I thought it was finished with one part (e.g., the foundation) and then changing the filament and restarting the print. This worked beautifully the first time but the second time I tried it I ran into a known issue with the Makerbot Replicator 5th Gen – the extruder (where the plastic is heated and comes out) gets clogged and there’s no way to open the extruder and clear it. The likelihood of this seems to increase when you change filaments.

Changing the Extruder

I was able to pause the print and remove the filament when the extruder first became clogged and actually swap in a new extruder I had on hand. Unfortunately, that extruder also had problem, it was leaking filament! Even though I had not restarted the print, purple filament was slowly streaming out. Now, I was in a bind because I did not have another extruder to swap in. I decided to reach out to my local network (the other Tech Coordinators at my school) and ask if they had an extra extruder I could borrow. We’re fortunate enough to have a Makerbot in our Lower School, Middle School, and Upper School so there was a chance my project would be saved! Otherwise it could be weeks before I could finish the print. Thankfully, one of them did have a new extruder and I was able to put it in and successfully finish the print!

YouTube has been a very useful resource so far in this project. I am a visual learner and it’s helpful to be able to watch something, hear it explained, then go back and watch it again if I want, pausing to look closer at exactly how something is working. I’m excited to work on my next two goals, making something practical with the 3D printer and printing something with moving parts.

Mapping My PLN in 2015

Click the Image to See it Full Screen

This week I had the chance to map out my Professional Learning Network (PLN) using Popplet, a digital mind mapping tool (available free on the web and as a paid app), as part of my work in CEP810. I tried to capture the various communities, platforms, and topics that make up my PLN, as well as their many intersections. I’ve done this exercise a few times before, including an in-depth reflection I created while participating in #ETMOOC in 2013.

The same familiar communities popped up at the heart of my PLN: ed tech, global education, and early childhood education. These are my passions and my PLN is instrumental in helping me to learn more about each one. While making my map, I also realized that social media (another passion of mine) is truly the core of my PLN because it is through various social tools and networks that I usually engage with most of my communities. Although I certainly have face-to-face networks that contribute to my PLN, the majority of my professional learning and connections have been built online.

I use a number of different social tools, but Twitter has been the place where I have built the strongest networks. I have used it to develop and maintain many relationships that have had an important impact on who I am as a professional and a classroom educator. For example, it was through Twitter that I first connected with Lindsey (@LindseyOwn), and due to our shared interests, we ended up in the same Global Online Academy (GOA) course on Coaching Innovation, which then led us to plan (completely virtually) a session on Scaling Innovation for SXSWedu last year … and now, we are co-facilitating a year-long GOA Global Learning Network around innovation (look for the iGLN hashtag)! I have so many stories like this, where through social media, I have gotten to know inspiring and amazing educators, leaders, and even organizations that have become a valuable part of my PLN.

You’ll probably notice that many of the nodes on my PLN map are actually hashtags because it is through those simple little hash-marked keywords and their related real-time chats, that I have grown to be part of some wonderful communities. These communities (e.g., #dtk12chat, #makered, #etmooc, etc) have changed the way I teach and they have pushed me to grow, each and every day, as an educator, innovator, and leader. Most importantly, hashtags offer an opportunity to create meaningful relationships with other people who are passionate about the same topics I love and they connect me to support whenever I have questions or need encouragement. It’s pretty impressive how powerful those little hashtags can be!

One challenge that I encountered when trying to create my PLN in Popplet was adequately showing some of the interconnections that exist between my different communities. The lines started to cross and blend together and some nodes felt too far to really draw a line to another one. I also could not fit as many nodes on my map as I wanted without it becoming too large and hard to see on one screen. This is one of the reasons I reverted to pen and paper when I tried to map my PLN in 2013. I wonder what other tools might exist today that could help capture the dynamic relationships between different communities, tools, and topics in a PLN?

By posting my PLN map here, I am hopeful that I can make even more connections and expand my network even further. If you are interested or passionate about any of the topics on my map, please reach out to me and let’s chat!