I recently attended an “introduction to 3D printing workshop that was hosted through the University of Victoria libraries.  I previously had no idea that workshops were offered through the libraries, but there are workshops on coding, movie editing, data visualization, and a host of other things.

The 3D printing workshop itself was awesome. Not only did the educator provide the necessary information for learning how to make our own 3D models, they connected us to many useful resources, and how to use the printers at UVic for our own projects. I am really interested in the open-source aspect of being able to share different schematics. I feel like there is great value in the creative and utilitarian aspects of this. Humanity has made leaps and bounds through the creation of certain tools, and I see the creative aspect of 3D printing to be conducive in generating of new types of tools, even though they may not exactly “reinvent the wheel”.

I believe workshops offered through communities and libraries have immense value. New technology can feel like an immense burden to some, but workshops provide an opportunity to learn in a low-pressure environment alongside an experienced educator. They have the ability to increase the technological literacy of people through developing skill sets.  Considering how valuable my experience with the 3D printing workshop was, I am going to make an effort to attend a variety of technology-based workshops in the future.

If you are interested in this type of workshop I strongly encourage you  to reach out to a library near you to see what they offer. Here are  links to the Greater Victoria Public Library and the University of Victoria’s event page below, as well as a website called Eventbrite, which a third-party source for all types of events and community workshops. It can be used for a number of cities across Canada, so check it out.