How would Students like to see 3D printer used in class?

[ralphzoontjens]

3D Printers should be used sparingly and wisely.
At the industrial design school I worked at, students were introduced to 3D printing during a 40-hr class in the first or second year, including a visit to a 3D printing service facility. The number of 3D printers and access to them is limited, the high-end printers only being available to master students. There has to be good instruction on what type of prototyping process to use, before students limit themselves to just 3D modeling and printing, straying away from hand modeling which is enormously valuable as well both as creative tool and prototyping method. Then for creating experiential (visual+functional) prototypes there has to be good instruction on what type of process to use as well. Stimulating students to plan ahead and use an external service agency such as Shapeways for their prototypes works well too.
Because education becomes more and more diverse, multidisciplinary and tailored to the individual student I vote for ideas such as awarding students with 'expert points' that they can trade in for using certain machines or doing special workshops, when availability is limited. It will also be an incentive to produce better work when that allows them to gain more points.

[RobH2]

3D Printers should be used sparingly and wisely....

Yea, I couldn't agree more. Sure, 3d printers are fantastic and I'm so thrilled we have them. When I was in school getting my degree in Industrial Design, 3d printers were decades away from being even invented. So we had no choice to learn other manufacturing techniques. We spent a great deal of time in the shop building our prototype models by hand with wood, plex, plaster and all kind of other methods. We could not 3d print part, we had to cast them or mill them on a milling machine. To this day, those shop skills have been some of the greatest life skills I ever aquired. I fear that modern ID students are spending more time printing than fabricating by hand. And I'm not sure that's a good thing.

There are 1000's of other fabrication methods that aren't going away. 3d printing will never eliminate the vast majority of manufacturing methods. Knowing when to use it to take advantage of its unique capabilities is what's required and what makes it such a great addition to the toolkit.