3D printing with critical thinking and systems design:an innovative approach to task-based language teaching in technical communication

摘要

3D Printing is commonly referred to as a third industrial revolution in manufacturing (Council et al., 2014; Anderson, 2012; Blikstein, 2013), offering a dynamic alternative to traditional manufacturing with its capacity for design innovation, digital fabrication, and data management. Educators who employ 3D Printing initiatives in their language teaching have the opportunity to academically explore new and innovative teaching and learning strategies. This paper discusses 3D Printing as a platform that provides educators with multiple opportunities to explore, invent and implement language teaching ideas while teaching technical communication in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context. The paper takes an instructional approach to explaining how 3D Printing initiatives - including 3D scanning, computer-aided designing, sketchboarding, concept mapping, prototyping with LEGO and maintaining online design feeds - could be successfully included in technical communication pedagogy alongside more traditional genres of document production.The authors’ recent experience at a technical university in Japan suggests that using 3D Printing to teach technical communication in an EFL context is, at graduate level or equivalent, both realistic and feasible if a project-based learning (PBL) approach is taken.