Teaching 3D Printing at Hackerspace Phnom Penh Cambodia

Recently we started a novel experiment at Hackerspace Phnom Penh to introduce 3D printing technology to kids. We organized a saturday afternoon workshop for the coding club members of local international school. The parents who brought the kids were just as excited about the 3D printing technology.

Photo Credit: Akira

The workshop started with Leo Jofeh walking the kids through the basics of 3D printing technology. The Makerbot Cupcake CNC was used to show various parts of 3D printing machine. The DIY model of the Cupcake CNC 3D printer makes it easy to see all the parts unlike the more recent models of the 3D printers.

Next we brought in the modern Lulzbot Mini 3D printer and did a quick test print of small object from Thingiverse.com to show the whole 3D printing process. The kids were already bubbling with ideas for building model tanks to full scale super hero characters. However we suggested something simpler that doesn't take hours of print time. The code club members were already familiar with the Google Sketchup program. So they quickly started creating drawing of comic characters and creating custom currency coins. With a Sketchup STL export plugin they could export the drawings into a 3D printable STL file.

Leo collected these STL files and added to them the Cura printing software with minor changes. The kids and the parents were totally engrossed all throughout the workshop. Indeed 3D printing unleashes your inner tool maker in everyone.

The workshop was a learning experience for us. Next we are going to expand the program to cover more schools and with few working templates that kids and the parents can work-together.

If you want to help or get involved please get in touch with us at facebook.com/groups/hackerspacepp.

Sugar Learning Platform

Last weekend I attended the Vietnam Tech Conference 2014 in Hanoi. The event brought together educators from across south east asia to learn and share about the use of technology within the classroom.

My talk introduced the Sugar learning platform that was developed for OLPC laptops. Designed from the ground up especially for children. Sugar User Interfaces moves away from traditional 'desktop' metaphor. It makes collaborative learning a fun experience. There are numerous activities that promotes self-learning.

What is Sugar on a stick?

Sugar on a Stick is a Fedora® Spin Live USB operating system featuring the award-winning Sugar Learning Platform and designed to fit on an ordinary USB thumbdrive ("stick").

It will run on any recent x86-based computer that can boot from a USB stick (check the BIOS settings if it doesn't work straight away). This includes most Windows and Linux PCs and x86 Macs.

You can use SoaS to demo Sugar almost anywhere without disturbing the contents of the computer you use, and if people like what they see, you can install Sugar on a Stick to their hard drives or other sticks from the demo stick.

Learn more about Sugar on a stick here.

On Motherhood

Please welcome the new guest blogger Ammayee and she writes about the trials of being a mother of a monster child called 'me'.

I am a woman and mother of two grown-up children, I am proud of it and I owe it to my father who believed that educating a girl child was important in the days when women's education was considered to be no good. Now I teach and inspire my students about the importance of getting an education and earning a better livelihood for themselves and their offspring. Indeed an educated mother would educate her children and contribute back to the society in more ways than a father.

Changing Times

I grew up in a large joint family , always surrounded by five younger siblings and half a dozen rowdy cousins, loving grandparents , many aunts, uncles and endless flow of relatives visiting our house in the village.

We learnt the joy of sharing and values naturally, by the time I had my first child times had indeed changed, my first child grew up with his heap of story books and comics while I was out working. The joint family system had long disappeared. But at the end of the day, despite my tiredness I made sure that the my child never felt for the loss of my company. Perhaps this made an impression on children's personality, making them lovable and responsible. Do you think that an ayaa (house maid) would have done a better job?. Perhaps she might look after the children but no one can replace the role of mother.

As a Teacher

Education is important, but not at the cost of one's childhood. The other days I visited a doctor who kept on insisting that his 9 year old child is not doing enough (that is to satisfy his parents desires). After two hours of tennis practice and five hours of school and a hour of Abacus training, he wants the poor child to attend some classes to improve his English language. This sounds absurd to me and that too coming from such an educated parent and a doctor who should know the importance of happy and stress free childhood. As a teacher this is story all around and makes me wonder if the meaning of 'Education' has taken a totally different shape altogether. I feel that I must have failed as a teacher somewhere.

As a mother, I was the best friend to my younger child and her hoards of friends who tagged along. Even today after she left for her college studies aboard I would get stopped sometimes on my way to work by her friends who say 'Aunt, we missing polishing off your chicken curry'. Ask yourself whether you are a guide and counsellor to your children and remember this the true education is imparted by you as a mother. I would love to her your motherhood experiences, Please do share them here !.