Week 2

Process

This week, I printed soccer ball sticker using vinyl cutting. I also plan to design fun stickers to encourage students’ love of reading.

After that, I printed out stickers for the students’ lockers. I used the Inscape to design the text. After that, I printed the resulting vector file on a vinyl cutter. However, I had difficulties with the configuration of the Armenian alphabet; it is not very convenient for printing. And as the result

Reflection

1.Based on this week experience, What are some opportunties to integrate this technology in the classroom? How do you think it could support your teaching?

Based on this week’s experience, I realized that using vinyl cutting can expand the possibilities of the educational process, making subjects and assignments more practical and problem-solving-oriented. For example, this technology could be used in art lessons, using pre-printed templates to color T-shirts, create all kinds of stamps, etc. In elementary grades, stickers can also be used to evaluate student work.

2.Shortly describe an educational activity in which you could use a vinyl cutter. Explain how would you implement each one of the steps of the design process model explained in the Master Class. Do not forget to discuss about learning objectives.

As a mentor, I don’t teach a specific subject; my learning objectives often focus on my students’ social and community skills. As a model for vinyl cutting, I would use the master class of printing stickers featuring road signs for subsequent use in social responsibility lessons. The learning objectives in this case are: teaching and reinforcing safety rules, as well as sharing experiences with a younger group of students.

3.In which part of the digital fabrication continuum (DF for kids to DF by kids) would you feel more comfortable? Why?

Of course, I would feel more comfortable in the children’s part of the continuum, because in that part, all responsibility lies solely with the teacher. But on the other hand, it’s clear that students absorb information and knowledge more easily if they actively participate in the process. Student participation certainly makes the process more difficult and time-consuming, but I believe it’s more effective than simply acquiring theoretical knowledge.

Tools

• Vinyl-cutting machine
• References or tutorials followed