Impediments to Digital Fabrication in Education

Abstract

Digital fabrication technologies are increasingly integrated across subjects in primary and secondary education. Focus on the potentials of these technologies has mainly been on the support to STEM oriented learning goals, while emphasis on teachers' roles with the new learning processes of technology and design is largely absent. The paper addresses the experiences and challenges that digital fabrication technology present for teachers in educational environments, and the impediments that are linked to the teachers' roles in design processes of digital fabrication. Based on a research study with eight primary and lower secondary teachers, the findings point to four central impediments for integrating digital fabrication and design into school environments. The findings extend current perceptions of digital technology in education towards exploratory processes of investigation in which the teachers' roles are fundamental.