The micro teach session was split into a 20 minute teach with 20 minute feedback. For my session I trialled a basic 3D modelling workshop that aimed to blend the physical and digital in an easily digestible way. I gave everyone a piece of plasticine and instructed them to create a physical form. I got them to scan the object using their mobile phone using a free app called Polycam and ended the session showing them an example of a scanned object in Blender (a 3d modelling program) and simple ways of editing the scanned form.
The main takeaways from the session:
- It felt technical but accessible, friendly and playful.
- Enjoyed the balance of tangible language – and able to transfer to a digital space.
- Using phones would be comfortable for students, a good barrier if a computer is intimidating.
- Great movement around the room, changing modes of space.
- I was as interested in the failures, and this narrative got slightly stronger through the session.
- Could have got us to play around with the tech or a mini workshop using blender.
My approach comprised of ‘active learning,’ giving people the same material to create entirely individual outcomes. For the first half of the session I left everyone up to their own devices to create any form they wanted, understating how the scanning would pick up interesting intricacies of the plasticine as they manipulate it. As a technician I am constantly moving around the space, checking on students progress and assessing if they need assistance and I feel it’s important for students to play with the material, or software, in their own time so they can make their own mistakes before jumping in and assisting, learning through doing.
A highlighted bit of feedback was it would have been beneficial to have everyone try Blender and continue to manipulate their object as a digital form. For this part of the workshop I uploaded my own scanned object (one I made earlier) and showed on a large screen some simple ways to edit it. This approach would have been more successful if everyone had access to their own computer where they could continue to edit their object, just in a digital way.
This made me think of the accessibility of resources for students needs. For example, I believe using a free downloadable phone app to scan the object worked well in this case but wouldn’t be as successful if a student didn’t have a phone that could download the app, or perhaps were resistant to downloading software on their own device. I over came this in my session by giving Tim my phone to use with the app pre-installed, and perhaps this could also work if students were paired up or in small groups and shared one device.
