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The Future of Education is 3D Printed with Y Soft and Prosek Technical School

-- Prosek Technical School and Y Soft Offer Teachers 3D Printing Curriculum to Enhance their Classroom Experience --

Prague -- Y Soft, a leading Enterprise Office Solution provider and Technical School in Prosek announced today the grand opening of a 3D printing classroom for educators in the Prague area. The classroom is a unique initiative for Czech education as it enables teachers from other schools to learn how to use 3D printing in their curriculum. Y Soft has fitted the classroom with fifteen 3D printers, as well as providing consulting and assistance with 3D curriculum creation. 
 
 
 
The 3D classroom for teachers is the result of the school’s long-term experience with 3D printing technology. Since purchasing their first 3D printer in 2010, the school was looking for the most efficient way to leverage the benefits that 3D printing brings to the education process. In September 2015, Prosek joined forces with technology innovator Y Soft and commenced a one-year field study of a specialized 3D printing classroom.
 
“From the beginning it was obvious that 3D printing has an extremely positive influence on student’s motivation to study. Students were curious about the technology and eager to explore its possibilities in their graduation projects and in different 3D technology-related classes. To use the potential fully, we decided to create a special classroom dedicated exclusively to 3D printing and integrate it tightly in the whole four-year curriculum plan,” says Lukas Prochazka, Deputy Headmaster, Technical School in Prosek.
 
Now that 3D printing has proven to be successful with students, Prosek has opened the classroom to other school teachers. Prosek and Y Soft intend to offer teachers specialized courses ranging from an introduction to 3D printing to the transfer of best practices for establishing 3D printing as an integral part of the education process, as well as provide information on how to implement efficient workflows.
 
Prosek and Y Soft celebrated the opening of the 3D classroom for teachers by holding a grand opening ceremony on September 22, 2016. In addition to a tour for local teachers, the event brought local dignitaries and media together to witness the 3D classroom and to hear about how 3D printing can be used to enhance STEM education.
 
Lessons learned   
To understand how 3D printers can impact a student’s education, Prosek made 3D printers available to all students and invited them to freely explore the 3D printers’ capabilities in their school work and for personal use. As a result of the one-year study, Technical School Prosek made the following observations:
  • 63% of printed objects were related to education (40% graduation projects, 12% teaching aids, spare parts etc., 8% individual education projects and 3% were printed as part of the school’s marketing activities).
  • 37% of printed objects were for personal and entertainment use
 
The testing period also helped to identify three unique challenges that educational institutions should consider when implementing 3D printing:
 
1)      Cost Management and Recovery – As each object consumed different amounts of filament (the thermoplastic material used to print a 3D object), it is difficult to set a transparent, accurate and automated payment system. Considering the share of personal use as well as school use, a 3D printing solution that would enable schools to account for and recover costs associated with the total cost of ownership for 3D printers would be required.
 
3)      3D Print Management – A fleet of 3D printers are not administered and managed unlike today’s current paper printers. This can lead to, for example, late identification of failed prints, refills of filament spools and lack of overall control over who is using the printers and what is being printed.
 
3)    Security – Students often interrupted each other’s print jobs to start their own print without waiting for the current job to finish. In some cases, it was observed that students who didn’t submit the print job took the printed objects.
 
Not a 3D printer, but a 3D print management solution
With Y Soft as the technology partner of the year-long testing period, these observations were incorporated in the development of the YSoft be3D eDee printing solution specifically designed for schools.
 
YSoft be3D eDee is the industry’s first solution with an integrated print management system that enables schools to administer the entire fleet operation. The YSoft be3D eDee solution also includes an accounting and workflow solution that efficiently solves the print management, and cost management/recovery needs identified during the test period. Further, the 3D printer part of the total solution includes card reader access so that 3D print jobs can be authenticated, monitored and transparently billed. The closed construction and electro-mechanical door locks and secures the 3D object from other students and enhances safe operation.
 
“From a business perspective, education is one of the strongest areas for new technologies that promote the study of STEM in education. Our cooperation with Technical school in Prosek substantially contributed to our ability to deliver 3D printing solutions that perfectly match the needs and expectations of schools, teachers and students,” said David Miklas, CEO, YSoft Be3D division, Y Soft Corporation.
 
“We believe that the 3D printer market, which is heavily focused on promoting individual features like print volume or speed, fails to address key issues that customers are dealing with today. When adopting 3D printing in larger and networked fleets, they need an intelligent solution that enables an organization to manage them, while staying productive and cost-effective when using 3D printers. It is the same strategy that helped us succeed in 2D printing and will further our success in 3D printing,” said Vaclav Muchna, CEO and co-founder, Y Soft.

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