I am getting ready to bring my GF into my classroom for the new school year. My question is how to set up an account so the kids can use it. The way I see it I have a few options
Invite the kids to create their own GF account - don’t think this is the best option.
Have them use my account.- defineatly don’t want to do that
Have one laptop set up exclusively for use with laser cutter- probably my best option, maybe use a generic account.
I teach middle school so most are under 13, which always creates issues for online accounts. We’re are also talking about approx. 120 students.
Designs aren’t shared (shareable) outside of the account the design is uploaded to
The UI is accessible from any internet connected computer.
Some people have said the system doesn’t seem to like multiple concurrent sessions.
If they have access to your account, they could order materials etc.
A Laser Safety Officer (you) processing the designs would be a good idea - even if it’s a basic and falls outside of the general parameters/definition of a LSO.
The UI doesn’t do much - in the sense of, they probably won’t be learning much from within in. One can experiment and do some cool things but that’s better under supervision.
I’m thinking your option 3 might be best. A single computer running the show through a secondary account you create (or maybe create an account for each class before you end up with a 1000 designs in the account)
I would create one sub user that becomes the upload and control account for the Glowforge. Not sure how your computers are set up, but designating one for a class session that you log into the sub account at the beginning.
Share a network drive that everyone uploads their designs to. I think getting the students to understand that the most crucial aspect of the whole process is designing something and that takes place on their own workspace. Yes, speeds and feeds and materials are another step, but have them take turns at running the laser while the others are designing.
Maybe begin designing a workflow for the class objectives and then figure out the best way to log into the GFUI and fit the design and production details into the flow.
The laser will always be a bottleneck, either for a long job (perhaps limit designs to a 10 minute or even five minutes process or some type of issue of connectivity or something (I hope rare). Good luck.
Yeah, I’d suggest the account for each class since there’s no way to organize files. I would not give them account info since they can, technically, access everything from home.
Luckiest middle schoolers ever! I’m wondering if my kids (my own kids!) will be excited to have a Glowforge at home. They’ve seen what I can make and haven’t shown a lot of interest, but they haven’t really been able to do anything of their own yet.
So my thought is to set up a google account for each period so they can drop their designs there. Then combine multiple students projects into one svg file. And print them all at once. I will use on laptop with the GF UI on it, and they can open the file from google, or from a flash drive.
Thinking small projects, coasters, ornaments, boxes, gliders.