Canadian 3D printer company Tinkerine has just announced Tinkerine U an educational program that aims to put 3D printers and their robust 3D printing curriculum into every school in North America. Of course it’s their own 3D printer — the DittoPro — that they want in those classrooms.
Tinkerine U aims to sell Tinkerine 3D printers and filaments bundled with online 3D printing courses, lesson plans and a library of educational 3D models to schools. This is just the latest 3D printing company that has created educational materials as a way to sell more 3D printers.
“Tinkerine is dedicated to supporting schools, teachers and students. To this end we are excited to provide educational packages that include discounts, giving institutions and students greater access to our technology.”
For their part Tinkerine brought in people who really know how to create educational materials and deliver it to schools quickly. Tinkerine U’s managing director is Kevin Brandt, a twenty-year veteran of the Canadian education system, and most recently was the Director of Instruction of a large school district in Canada. The curriculum will be developed with Ready Labs, a educational content provider that uses new technology to deliver interactive and mobile educational materials into modern classrooms. Ready Labs is a spin-out company from Simon Fraser University, one of the best Canadian public colleges in the country and home to several experts in education technology development.
“We know that 3D printing in the classroom is the centerpiece to a comprehensive active learning approach, where students learn the problem solving skills to become the leaders of the future,” said Kevin Brandt. “As a company, Tinkerine remains committed to making 3D printing affordable and accessible to schools, teachers, and students anywhere in the world.”
I’m generally for anything that can help kids learn, and 3D printing is a great way to get children interested in science and technology. But I can’t be alone in thinking that 3D printing companies may not be the best people to design educational materials. We don’t let Sony create course material for schools, why are we letting 3D printing companies?
The answer is simple, no one else is doing it. 3D printing companies are creating these curriculums because they want to sell their 3D printers to schools, and there is nothing wrong with that. Lots of companies make a lot of money from selling educational materials to schools. But we need to remember, Tinkerine and SeeMeCNC and Leapfrog are not trying to sell educational materials, they are all trying to sell 3D printers. They may produce some well made 3D printing courses, but you can be certain that those 3D printing courses are not going to teach anything that will impede the sale of those 3D printers, and that includes anything that might send students to other 3D printer manufacturers.
This isn’t Tinkerine’s fault and they have clearly put a lot of the right parts in place to produce a good 3D printing curriculum, so it is entirely possible that I’m being a little cynical in my old(ish) age. But no previews of the curriculum were made available online, just a brief overview of the first available course. Pictured right next to their DittoPro of course.
