3D Printing

To successfully complete 3D Printing
READ this blog post.
DO and THINK about the information in the "Learn More About" activities.
LEARN by completing the Hands-On Activities. Your total time commitment is about 60 minutes.

Introduction to 3D Printing
3D printers are a new generation of machines that can make different things with different materials all from the same machine. They can make anything from plastic toys, metal machine parts, and stoneware cups, to human body parts. They are a disruptive technology.

They replace traditional factory production lines with a single machine -- just like home inkjet printers replaced bottles of ink, a printing press, hot metal type, and a drying rack. The personal computer, the printer, and the Internet made us all publishers. With 3D printers and 3D design software such as Tinkercad, we can all be manufacturers.

Why is it called 3D printing? Look closely with a microscope at a page of text produced by your home printer. The ink doesn’t stain the paper; the letters actually sit on top of the page surface. If you printed over that same page several thousand times, the ink will build up enough layers to create a solid 3D model of each letter. Building a physical form out of tiny layers is how the first 3D printers worked.

Today, 3D printing starts with designing a 3D object with CAD software on a computer, then connecting it to a 3D printer, press ‘print’ and sit back and watch. The 3D printing process turns the whole object you designed into thousands of tiny little slices, then makes it from the bottom-up, slice by slice. Those tiny layers stick together to form a solid object. Each layer can be very complex.

Future opportunities abound for 3D printing. Imagine a world where everyday items are made at home to your unique specifications. You could have anything you wanted at your own schedule. As Dale Dougherty, founder and publisher of MAKE says, “It’s Wal-Mart in the palm of your hand. That’s the crazy promise of it."

For now, though, early adopters are figuring things out and making way for the rest of us. Until 3D printing matches the smooth finish of industrial machines and the economies of mass production, the rest of us will continue shopping at regular stores. Prices of 3D printers will continue to decline and capabilities will improve over time. Then we’ll all have one and wonder how we ever survived without it.

Learning More about 3D Printing (30 to 45 minutes)

1. Read the article What is 3D printing? and watch the 52 second video on SLA. You can skip the first two videos (SLS and FDM processes) on the web page. (15 minutes)
2. Watch 3D Printing Explained by ExplainingtheFuture (6:11 minutes)
3. Read Pages 8 and 10 -16, Make Magazine, Winter 2013 (15 minutes)

Hands-on Activities (10 to 15 minutes) Tinkercad is a free, web-based 3D design software. During winter break, we're going to do training on Tinkercad. Today's hands-on activity just gets you started with this cool application and 3D design.

1. Watch the Intro to Tinkercad video (2:44 minutes)
2. Sign up for a free Tinkercad account.(30 seconds)
3. Do the first Tinkercad lesson ONLY. (2 to 8 minutes)

When You're Done...

Don't forget to submit this form to get credit! You'll also be entered to win a prize drawing to take place at the end of the blog training.

Copyright

To successfully complete Copyright

READ this blog post.

DO and THINK about the information in the “Learn More About” activities.

LEARN by completing the Hands-On Activities.

Your total time commitment is about 50 minutes.

Introduction to Copyright

The term copyright refers to a legal right - granted by law, so it varies by country - given to the creator of an original work (written, audiovisual, software, etc.) to use and distribute it as they see fit. You can usually find copyright information printed inside books, on the back of DVD and CD cases, listed at the bottom of websites, and buried in the legalese of many End-User License Agreements. Copyright is very easy to get; all you have to do is create an original work! Copyright law says that once something is created, it is copyrighted. You can, however, register a work to set the record right as to who "owns" the work.

Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization that tries to make it easier to understand how original works can be used. Creative Commons offers licenses that explain clearly how the creator of a work wants to allow people to use it. Are they allowed to use it as it is? Can they make changes and then use it? Is commercial use allowed? All these answers can be found in the CC license.

You can use copyrighted material under Fair Use, which has four factors. These are not hard-and-fast rules, but Fair Use considers the purpose of the use (it should be educational or non-profit), the nature of the work being used (it should be published, and it should be more fact than fiction), how much of the work is being used (you shouldn't use the vital "heart of the work" and you shouldn't use too much of it), and your use of the material should not harm the market for it.

Public Domain is the term for material that is not copyrighted, whether it never had copyright or the copyright expired. Most works created by the United States government do not have copyright applied to them, and are therefore Public Domain. Copyright owners can choose to release their works to the Public Domain, or allow their copyright to expire.

Learn More About Copyright (20 minutes)

1. Read TCC Library's Copyright LibGuide (a big thank you to Ruth Shumate and Bethany Wright for creating this!) (10 minutes)

2. Read the Creative Commons "About" page to learn more about the organization. (10 minutes)

Hands-On Activities (20 minutes)

1. Think of an original work you might create (a song, short story, photograph, website, piece of software, etc.). Then visit the Creative Commons Licenses page to read about what each license allows. Which one would you want to apply to your work? Why? (10 minutes)

2. Visit flickr. Do a search for a photo subject that interests you. At the top of the page of results, click where it says "License: Any License." Choose "Creative Commons only." All these images should have CC licenses of some kind applied to them. Click on an image in your results. Under the "Taken on" date, there is a message about the copyright that should be linked to a page from Creative Commons. Read about the license applied to the image you chose. What are you allowed to do with it? What aren't you allowed to do? (10 minutes)

When You're Done...

Don't forget to submit this form to get credit! You'll also be entered to win a prize drawing to take place at the end of the blog training.

Cybersecurity

To successfully complete Cybersecurity

READ this blog post.

DO and THINK about the information in the “Learn More About” activities.

LEARN by completing the Hands-On Activities.

Your total time commitment is about 40 minutes.

Introduction to Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is keeping the information on computers and other devices safe, and it is especially important when dealing with personal information like names, contact information, SSNs, student IDs, birthdates, banking details, and more.

Common vulnerabilities in computer systems include backdoors (a method of bypassing authentication, so the user doesn’t have to log in to access the computer), eavesdropping (which, like human eavesdropping, involves listening in on a “conversation” between computers on a network), and exploits (which is when someone uses a piece of software to use a glitch in the computer to its advantage).

Another vulnerability – which you don’t need to know a lot about computer science to help avoid – is human error. Examples of mistakes like this include telling someone your password to a secure network, downloading something from a stranger’s flash drive onto a secure computer, or leaving yourself logged into a computer and walking away.

The consequences of having your cybersecurity breached depends on the scope and type of breach. If patrons’ personal information is stolen, you risk losing your patrons because they don’t trust you with their information anymore. (For example, Target’s business took a hit after they were hacked over Black Friday last year.) Sometimes the hackers steal money from the organization, in which case you suffer a financial loss.

Secure coding, firewalls, user account controls, and other means can be used to try to protect a network from infiltration, but the hardest methods of cybersecurity to enforce are those left up to the users (that’s us!). The network can be completely secured from the computer science standpoint, but all of that work does us no good if we give out our passwords and let anyone use it.

Learn More About Cybersecurity

1. Read Microsoft’s tips on creating a secure password. (5 minutes)

2. Read Lifehacker’s explanation of how to avoid being the victim of social engineering attacks. (15 minutes)

Hands-On Activities

1. Check this list of the 25 most common passwords of 2013 (reported by CBS). Are any of your passwords (work, personal email, bank account, etc.) on this list? If so, you should go change them. Like, right now. (10 minutes)

2. Pretend you are a hacker who wants to get into the computer system here at the library. What would you do to steal our information? Would you take a computer-based approach or a human-based approach? Why? Now think about what you can do as an employee of the library to stop people who might take your chosen approach. (10 minutes)

When You're Done...

Don't forget to submit this form to get credit! You'll also be entered to win a prize drawing to take place at the end of the blog training.

Net Neutrality

To successfully complete Net Neutrality

READ this blog post.

DO and THINK about the information in the “Learn More About” activities.

LEARN by completing the Hands-On Activities.

Your total time commitment is about 40 minutes.

Introduction to Net Neutrality

“Net neutrality” means Internet service providers and governments treating all online data equally, and not discriminating based on content, website of origin, platform, type of equipment being used, or mode of communication. The “Open Internet” is the Internet with net neutrality in place, with all content being treated equally. The controversy surrounded the concept of net neutrality is about whether it should be required by law.

People who are in favor of net neutrality argue that if companies are allowed to use tiered service models, they will eliminate their competition and control the internet in unacceptable ways (for example, they would be able to pick and choose the Google results you receive).

People who oppose net neutrality argue that companies don’t plan to block content from their users or cut down on their networks’ performance. (Comcast, however, has disproven this argument by doing exactly this.) They also argue that some level of data discrimination is required to provide higher quality service and should be preferred.

Learn More About Net Neutrality

1. Read about the Open Internet at FCC.gov. (10 minutes)

2. Watch Vi Hart’s video explaining lots of stuff I didn’t fit into the introduction above. (11:02)

Hands-On Activities

1. Make a list (written or mental) of the many things you use the internet for. If your Internet Service Provider (ISP) decided that one of these things (a specific website or type of content) was not going to get to you as quickly or as easily as it does now, how would that affect the way you use the internet? How would it affect the providers of the content being blocked/slowed?

2. If you feel strongly about net neutrality, file a public comment with the FCC and tell them what you think they should do.

When You're Done...
Don't forget to submit this form to get credit! You'll also be entered to win a prize drawing to take place at the end of the blog training.

Getting Started - 2nd Round of Learning

The 2nd round of Learning at Joint-Use Library launches on September 8th and concludes on October 13th. This time around, we will cover the following topics --

Week 1, Net Neutrality
Week 2, Cybersecurity
Week 3, Copyright / Creative Commons
Week 4, 3D printing
Week 5, Emerging Technologies
Week 6, Augmented Reality

Each learning session represents a total weekly time commitment of 30 – 60 minutes.

Any staff member who finishes all six learning sessions will receive a cool JUL Learning button. AND if you complete all six by October 27th, you will be eligible for a prize drawing.

A huge thank you to Alex and Bethany for their help!