Occasional Observations of Traveling Technology Coach

When the students first started using the 3Doodler 3D printing pens, they had mixed success:

• PRO: I had exactly 12 pens, so each student could use a pen.

• CON: The pens took about an hour to charge, and had to be recharged often.

• PRO: I had three powerful usb chargers and there was a good surge strip in the room

• CON: The filament was old and brittle. It had not been opened during the 18 months of covid/remote learning. Subsequently, two of the pens became jammed when we tried to use the filament, and all the filament had to be tossed.
• PRO: When I explained how, because of covid and remote learning, we had not been able to use the kit for almost two years, the company replaced the two jammed pens and the whole box of 1200 filaments for free!

• CON: The company did not include the light green color filaments in the replacement.

• CON: Waiting for the replacement pens and filaments pushed the project start time back by two weeks.
• PRO: The kit provided plastic templates that had circles on them, so students could trace the circles with the pens.

• CON: Circles are really hard to draw and the filament did not stick to the plastic, but instead kept lifting off = frustrating to the students.
• PRO: The students “drew” on paper instead. The filament stuck much better on paper, and could be peeled off when cool.

• CON: Students did not press the filament onto the paper, but held the pens ever-so-slightly above the paper. Because filament was above the paper, it formed strands that did not stick in place and tended to buckle.

• CON: It took many sticks of filament to fill in even a little shape, so the students were not just making flimsy outlines.

• PRO: The students made flags, plates of spaghetti, abstract designs, scribble scrabble, their signatures, pyramids, etc.

• BOTTOM LINE: The students LOVED it!