Low cost design and digital fabrication technologies to promote creative competence

Abstract

The emergence of spaces where digital fabrication techniques are used to turn ideas into digital designs, and these into tangible products through 3D printing offer a great opportunity to develop creativity, competence included in learning environments. 3D printers are being incorporated into the schools, so it is necessary to design activities around these technologies for the development of curricular competences. Creative competence empowers people to achieve different solutions to the same problem: in this article an educational activity designed to stimulate creative competence is proposed, in which accessible and low cost technologies are used for custom design of an articulated object, where students can choose between various options for achieving the goal. The results of a pilot project conducted with a group of 44 university students show that activities with digital editing tools and three-dimensional printing are valid for the development of creative competence.