Exploring the Collaboration Possibilities of Distributed Making for Storytelling Using 3D Printing Pens

Abstract

As digital making tools, such as 3D printers and laser cutters, become more affordable and easier to use by non-experts, new opportunities arise for geographically distributed designers to use them collaboratively and at a distance. In this exploratory study, we investigated the possibilities of a 3D printing pen for collaboratively creating multimodal stories around the themes of ecology and climate change for elementary school-aged children. Our interdisciplinary team of four students met regularly over a video link and used shared documents and 3D pens to create a multimodal adventure book, with audio and tactile elements, that we then used as a design probe to elicit feedback from experienced community science educators working with children about the possibilities of using hands-on distributed collaborative techniques in the future. We found that using this approach is promising for facilitating creative verbal and visual collaboration at a distance, and using tactile and audio representations with narrative elements provides new ways to reflect on complex topics, such as climate change.