Smart Skills Updates 2017-18

Based on teacher and student feedback from last year, a number of changes have been made to the Smart Skills course materials for 2017-18:

New: Student Handbook
Guides students through the course step by step and records their progress
http://unitydcu.ie/ss-shb

New: Video Transcripts
For students who prefer written instructions, and to assist with checking and debugging apps
http://unitydcu.ie/ss-int
http://unitydcu.ie/ss-c1t
http://unitydcu.ie/ss-c2t
http://unitydcu.ie/ss-c3t

Updated: Course Overview for Teachers
More detailed lesson-by-lesson course plan, formal inclusion of third party apps
http://unitydcu.ie/ss-ovr

Updated: Student Resource Centre
Reorganised and consolidated resources for students, referenced by the Student Handbook
http://unitydcu.ie/ss-src

Updated: Hello World App
Separated from Starter Apps document, includes instructions to build and install the app
http://unitydcu.ie/ss-hwa

Updated: Starter Apps
Aligned with updated course content, includes new Hour of Code apps
http://unitydcu.ie/ss-sta

Updated: Project Briefs
Rewritten to include Project Notes and Extra Challenges that were previously in separate documents
http://unitydcu.ie/ss-c1b
http://unitydcu.ie/ss-c2b
http://unitydcu.ie/ss-c3b

MIT App Inventor's New Logo

MIT App Inventor has a fresh new logo, featuring a bee and honeycomb. Read about their rationale and design process in their blog post.

Some changes were made to the Blocks Editor in May of this year, adding features to make it easier to organise and manage code blocks. Read about those changes in this blog post.

Future of ARC Welder

In August 2016, Google announced that they would be "removing support for packaged and hosted apps from Chrome on Windows, Mac, and Linux over the next two years." Although Google have not made a definitive statement either way, it is widely believed that this means that ARC Welder will cease to be a viable solution for running Android apps on Windows machines: it could be removed from the Chrome Web Store in the second half of 2017, meaning no new installations, and stop working entirely from early 2018. The reason for the uncertainty is that while ARC Welder is itself a Chrome Extension, it installs and runs Android apps as Chrome Apps. Whether or not Google will provide an alternative (such as native support for Android apps in the Chrome Browser) is not known at this time.

In the absence of ARC Welder or another solution from Google, alternative methods for testing Android apps are:

• a physical Android device, typically a small tablet such as the Amazon Fire 7
• an Android emulator for Windows such as Nox or BlueStacks
• ARC Welder on a Chrome OS machine, such as a ChromeBook

The preferred and recommended method is to use Android tablets, as this gives students the most engaging experience, allows the use of all sensors and media capabilities, and is typically the most reliable method, requiring only that the tablets have an internet connection. A ratio of one tablet between four students is sufficient: with tablets from €70, a class of 24 students could be facilitated for €420 (the same price as a single iPad).

Android Emulators

Two additional Android emulators, Memu and KO Player, have been evaluated for use with the Smart Skills course. Both install reasonably quickly and run well. Memu doesn't require the user to sign into Google which is an advantage on a shared machine, has a very clean phone-like interface, and is easily flipped between portrait and landscape modes. KO Player is more games oriented, with promoted apps and ads being quite visible.

Unfortunately, both require administrator privileges to run each time they are launched (rather than just at installation), which rules them out for school use. Nox and BlueStacks therefore remain the emulators of choice.

BlueStacks Update

The latest version of BlueStacks (2.7.320) has a more conventional tablet-like appearance than previous versions, and starts up in landscape mode with the ability to switch to portrait mode once an app is running. The promotion of game downloads is somewhat less intrusive than it previously was, though still present on the main screen. A major improvement for our purposes is that BlueStacks TV video streaming is no longer launched automatically.

As before, BlueStacks requires the user to log in to Google during the initial setup. This account is not logged out when BlueStacks is closed, so the best approach in the school environment is to create a dedicated Google account for use with BlueStacks, and leave that account logged into all instances of BlueStacks. Students would still use their individual Google accounts with App Inventor when building their apps.

WhoIsQuiz Sample Apps

A new version of the WhoIsQuiz app has been added to the Downloads page for Core 2: Brainstorming http://unitydcu.ie/ss-c2d

WhoIsQuiz_example_1.aia shows how the app would appear at the end of video 5 (users type in answers), while WhoIsQuiz_example_2.aia shows how the app would appear at the end of video 8 (welcome screen, users select answers from a list). To load either of these into App Inventor, download and save the .aia file, then use Projects -> Import project (.aia) from my computer to upload it.

Both versions include the correction to the end-of-game logic described in the Project Notes document http://unitydcu.ie/ss-c2n. If this logic correction is not applied, the app as built in the videos crashes when the last question is answered. It may be a useful exercise to have students try to debug and correct the app themselves; the ability to do so demonstrates the transition from following the instructions in the video to understanding the logic and flow of the code.

App Inventor Update

An update to MIT App Inventor was pushed out on 27 January, and users will see a pop-up screen alerting them to this on their first sign-in after that date. None of the updates described in the release notes should have an impact on existing Smart Skills apps.

If you have installed the AI2 Companion App on an Android device in order to use the WiFi or USB 'live debug' methods, it will need to be updated to use the new features in this App Inventor release. If you installed the Companion App from the Google Play store, it will update automatically; if you installed it directly to your device, you will need to manually update to version 2.40 at appinv.us/companion.