Just as in the 80s, a whole bunch of kids are going to get their hands on new technology that will change the world in a few years. Awesome. This can’t be good, though. Look at what all those Apple IIe’s were used for. Word processing, Appleworks, and Oregon Trail. Yes, it’s fun, but using a computer only as a glorified typewriter does both the student and the computer a disservice. Are we to expect the Makerbots in every classroom will be used for novel and interesting applications? Will students around the country be printing out the stuff they created in art and shop class? Will teachers even know how to use the printer, how to calibrate and operate it? Is this printer just going to sit in a closet somewhere, off-limits to the curious student, going unused simply because 3D printers aren’t at the, ‘push a button, get a plastic part’ level of functionality yet? Obviously the idea of putting 3D printers in every school was thought up by a fool. This isn’t going to work without you.