Google IO 2014

26 June 2014

One way to categorize the new technologies is between Chrome and Android. 

Chrome is Google's web browser and many of the new tools run in Chrome and other browsers such as FireFox. If you develop an application that runs in a browser, your app can run on a desktop, laptop or a mobile device.

Android is Google's mobile operating system. It runs on phones, tablets and wearables such as watches. Today Google started distributing a developer preview of the new Android operating system called "L".

You can watch the keynote, as well as most of the other talks, by going to:

g.co/io14videos

=> POLYMER

Polymer is a code library for developing web apps. Polymer was developed by part of Chrome team, so they were able to request improvements to the Chrome browser that would make Polymer work better. Polymer is based on web components and it runs on other browsers as well as on Chrome. Polymer is HTML elements, for example, core and paper. The DOM is its framework. Polymer is at the forefront of a web components revolution, joined there by Mozilla x-tags. The tool to help developers implementing Polymer web apps is called "polymer designer".

polymer-project.org

=> MATERIAL

Material is a set of UI design elements. These elements make up a new unified user interface. Material forms a bridge between web apps and Android.

eg: Polymer paper elements implement Material. You can find more information, including Google UI design guidelines at
http://www.google.com/design/

=> "How to make sense of data coming from online classrooms"

By Peter Norvig, Julia Wilkowski

In order to learn from classroom student data, you must have an analytical dashboard built into your Course Management System.

Google makes MOOCs with their CourseBuilder software, and they have Google Search instrumented too, that's how they have suggestions and auto-complete.

What if compilers had as many examples of misspellings as Google search does? A compiler could give us great suggestions instead of cryptic error messages.

We can learn a lot from MOOCs, student goals and whether they reached them or not.

Instead of asking "what do we want students to know?", ask "what do we want them to be able to do?"

=> Vtune is software that will profile your mobile application and tell you which methods and statements are talking up all the machine cycles.

=> The conference started with demonstrators outside Moscone West while we were lining up for entry. The demonstrators (who appeared to be anarchists) were blaming Google for the housing shortage in San Francisco, instead of asking their city government to make the city more welcoming to housing developers.

=> Our gift was an LG G Watch that pairs with an Android device and gives you lots of information without your having to pull out your phone. I am lending it to one interested high school student for the summer, and then to Foothill's Computer Science Club in the Fall.