3D Printing
On display at this year’s Immersive Education Summit in Lucca, Italy will be several forms of Immersive Education. One form that will be featured at Immersive Italy from November 16-19, 2017 will be 3D Printing. 3D Printing has been a part of the Immersive Education Initiative since 2014, when Dr. Aaron Walsh introduced the phrase “inversion of immersion” to describe 3D Printing at the summit in Los Angeles that year.
3D Printing can be a great way for students to learn about things they are studying by allowing them to produce an accurate model. 3D printers use a computer generated image which it can then produce by “printing” layer upon layer to make a real life model of that computer image. There are several different types of all sizes available today.
The first one is the MakerBot Replicator+. It costs $2,500. It has a 100 micron resolution. It can print on a relatively large area. And can print via USB, WiFi, Ethernet, and from a thumb drive.
The next 3D printer available is the Flashforge Finder. It costs $400. It is cheaper because it works with only one type of filament material. It is relatively simple to use. This is a good 3D printer for beginners.
The Lulzbot Mini Desktop 3D printer is geared more toward professional users. It costs $1250. It can print with several different types of filament materials. It is also compatible with multiple 3D printing software platforms. It is easy to use and has automatic leveling and cleaning features.
The Ultimaker 2+ 3D Printer is another high-end option. It retails for $2500. It prints very high quality objects. However, it is not as versatile as some other printers as it is only capable of printing from SD cards. Below is a video showing how 3D printing can bring high end art to the home or classroom, a theme at this year’s Immersive Italy.
