I went to Owen Valley High School during their “Patriot Hour”, a chunk of time in the middle of the day when they get to choose where to go. Amy, the Librarian, hosts different things for kids. This time she wanted to do vinyl cutting with the Cricut (they have 1 Cricut Explore). I took a couple of laptops and my Cricut Maker. We had 13 kids come for this.
The most difficult part of 2D design (vinyl or laser) is finding free, easy to use SVG’s. Many schools block most sites. I had the noun project on my computers (and my mifi), so some got to search there. Others were using their chromebooks, so they googled and were very careful to find an SVG (I find SVG’s just work easier). They kept the tab open on their chromebooks, and came to the Windows computers and got to the site and downloaded the file. Now, some sites download a zip folder with multiple file formats (EPS, PNG, AI, SVG…), so that is confusing for newbies. Also, some sites have lots of ads you have to wade through to find the CORRECT “download”.
I think it went well. Kids were working and helping each other. They seemed happy that they got their own sticker. One looked and said “oh, that is kinda big” (even though we talked about dimensions). But that is okay.
I will go back next week. This time I will bring the 6 laptops I have (hope the mifi can handle ) and the 2 Cricut Joys. After that, I hope I will be going back occasionally for vinyl and other things (like laser ; 3D printing I would have to leave the printers and we have not talked about that yet. But we could))
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