Learning by Making. 3D Printing Guidelines for Teachers

For many years now, and particularly since the 1930s, educational research has focused on the idea that all authentic education comes from experience. Nowadays, activism has found a natural affinity with the maker movement. Fab labs and creative ateliers have become more popular, especially for educational purposes, suggesting the coming of new types of “learning by doing.” However, these new forms of “learning by doing” must take account of the technologies already present in a particular creative space used by makers. These technologies are mainly: 3D printers, CNC milling machines, 3D scanners, laser cutters, etc. This short paper begins with a premise of educational ergonomics, to introduce teachers, media educators and animatori digitali (digital coordinators) to the didactic implications of introducing different human–machine interfaces (HMI) into their practices. In particular we describe the main features of SLA and SLS 3D printing. The impacts we discuss of 3D printing are resolution, types of printing materials, average printing times, post-processing, and cost. We have selected these criteria because it has been documented that their impact is very heavy in certain school subjects. For example, an FDM 3D printer can be useful in terms of the ease of printing an object, but it may not reach the necessary level of detail for a meticulous reproduction of art objects or precision mechanisms that an SLA 3D printer can achieve.

Creating Ergonomic Learning Environment: the conceptual Apparatus

В статье исследуется проблема формирования понятийного аппарата нового раздела педагогики — эргономики образования. Актуальность обусловливается необходимостью обеспечить комфортность и безопасность процесса обучения, что достижимо посредством формирования эргономической образовательной среды. Целью является теоретическое обоснование процесса формирования эргономической образовательной среды, обеспечивающей развитие личности и сохранение здоровья при наличии образовательного потенциала. Рассматриваются разработки отечественными и зарубежными авторами терминологической структуры эргономической образовательной среды. В работе в качестве методологического выступает эргономический подход, а также применяется анализ и обобщение научных исследований по проблеме формирования эргономической образовательной среды в системе образования. Исследуя формирование эргономической образовательной среды, мы выявляем, что данный феномен в педагогике не изучен. Лишь фрагментарно представлены положения педагогической эргономики как раздела педагогики. Нами сформулировано несколько понятий: «эргономическая образовательная среда», «эргономическая образовательная система», «эргономичность», «эргономическое образовательное пространство», «эргономизация». Раскрыта их сущностная характеристика и наполняемость, дана характеристика эргономической компоненты образовательной среды, отмечены этапы, принципы, параметры, требования и показатели процесса формирования эргономической образовательной среды, а также указан компонентный состав технологии создания и применения комфортной среды в образовательном процессе. Делается вывод, что при формировании эргономической образовательной среды на основе эргономического подхода учет учебной деятельности обучающихся и трудовой деятельности педагога обеспечит развитие личности и сохранение здоровья. The article investigates the issue of creating the conceptual apparatus of a new branch of pedagogy, namely educational ergonomics. The relevance of the research is accounted for by the necessity to ensure comfortable and safe education, which can only be achieved through an ergonomic educational environment. The aim of the research is to provide a theoretical substantiation of the necessity to create an ergonomic educational environment which ensures learners’ harmonious development and health preservation coupled with learners’ educational potential. The article investigates Russian and foreign scholars’ works devoted to the investigation of terminology related to educational ergonomics. Having researched the formation of ergonomic educational environments, we can maintain that the phenomenon is largely underinvestigated. Pedagogical ergonomics is only treated as a branch of pedagogy. We have formulated a number of notions such as ergonomic educational environment, ergonomic educational system, ergonomics, ergonomic learning space, ergonomization. The article characterizes the essence and the content of the notions, characterizes the ergonomic components of educational environments, speaks about the stages, principles, parameters, requirements and indices of the process of ergonomic educational environment formation. It also discusses the components of the technology of creating a comfortable learning environment. The author concludes that when an ergonomic educational environment is created, the analysis of teachers’ and learners’ academic activities can ensure both personality development and health preservation.

Educational Ergonomics in Higher Education Institutions in Nigeria

This study focused on investigating the ergonomics and ergonomic considerations of learning environments of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Nigeria. It adopted a descriptive survey design. Population of study comprised all the three universities in Rivers State and a total of 136 lecturers, 230 students and 6 staff of works departments constituted the sample. Four research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. Data was collected using a researcher-constructed questionnaire entitled Educational Ergonomics in Higher Institutions questionnaire (EEIHIQ). An observation checklist and interview schedules were also used. The instrument was validated by experts and its reliability index was established at .75 index using Pearson Moment correlation coefficient. Mean scores were used to answer the research questions while the z–test was used to test the hypotheses at the .05 level of significance. The findings were that school buildings and other teaching and learning facilities in the universities are ergonomically below standard and unsafe. Recommendations towards improvement are made.Keywords: Physical facilities planning; Ergonomics; Quality assurance