PrintLab Launches 3D Printing Learning Platform for the Netherlands

In early 2018, British 3D printing curriculum provider PrintLab set up its online PrintLab Classroom portal to give teachers a little help in coming up with creative lesson plans that integrate 3D printing into core classroom topics, like arts, computing, engineering, geography, languages, and science. Last year, the company – which distributes a large ecosystem of top 3D printing products – announced that its English platform was available in Polish, and those who speak Greek have one as well.

This week, PrintLab introduced its new platform for the Netherlands, thanks to a collaboration with Dutch 3D technology and education supplier De Rekenwinkel.

Nick Mayor, the Co-Founder of PrintLab, told 3DPrint.com, “After some great success of our English platform and with our resources currently being used by thousands of teachers around the world, we would like to inform you of the exciting launch of PrintLab Classroom Netherlands!”

Now a PrintLab reseller, De Rekenwinkel will be offering this newly translated curriculum, in addition to a 3D printer and materials, as part of a multinational approach to provide hundreds of teachers in the Benelux region (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg) with the necessary knowledge and skillset to educate all of their students.

“We are very excited to start the cooperation with PrintLab for the Benelux market,” said Klaus Kuperus, the Sales Director of De Rekenwinkel. “Over the last few months, we’ve been learning a lot ourselves with the Classroom platform and we are very happy to have the chance to offer the students of the Dutch primary and secondary schools the same experience! 3D printing and scanning offers huge learning possibilities and with the PrintLab Classroom adapting this to real-life situations and being cross-curricular, I am convinced teachers and students will love it!”

With this launch, Dutch teachers will now be able to enjoy access to a variety of creative classroom projects, in addition to new lessons that will be added to the portal each month. Each of these lessons includes everything a good educator needs to create and teach the lesson, including:

• Downloadable presentations and student workbooks
• Information about learning criteria and subject areas
• Step-by-step lesson preparation and delivery information
• Training/lesson practice video tutorials

PrintLab’s curriculum generation has also been improved, and supported with alignment to ISTE standards. For example, in addition to Tinkercad workflows, lesson plans are also receiving workflows in Fusion 360, which gives both teachers and students more flexibility in gaining new knowledge about design software.

In addition to lesson plans, PrintLab emphasizes the importance of Continued Professional Development (CPD) and teacher training by including a certification course, so that educators can help prepare the next generation in Dutch-speaking countries for their future as members of the workforce.

“Since launch, we have seen a huge amount of interest in PrintLab Classroom resources from around the world. With over 50 resources and growing, a key challenge for us is to enable educators to be able to use the platform in varying languages. Our mission has always been to prepare the next generation for their future careers by addressing the widening skills gap and I am very proud to say that our mission is now being realised in a number of regions. Our focus is on finding partners that share our belief and vision and in De Rekenwinkel, we have found an inspired team that has education at its core,” said Mayor in a press release about the launch.

“The aim is to inspire students and teachers to adopt technology into lessons. PrintLab Classroom is now being used in around 25 countries and for us that is just the beginning, as we look to inspire minds on a global scale with curriculum and training. A special mention must go to our PrintLab Pioneers, a group of 30 teachers from around the world that play a huge part in our curriculum development. For me this is the real power of Classroom, curriculum and training developed alongside teachers, for teachers!”

PrintLab Classroom is expected to be available in Spanish by Q1 2020.

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