Archive for month: October, 2019

Fable is now closer to 30M students & educators worldwide!

Fable Blockly now runs on Chromebooks, laptops that run Google’s Chrome OS and that have been built for a learning purpose using insights from educators and students. 

There are several advantages you can find with Chromebooks:  

• Share devices easily between students
• Boots up in seconds and works on and offline
• Built for durability to handle student wear and tear
• Unlock creativity with curated apps for learning
• Automatic updates with an Internet connection

Ever wonder why a Chromebook has lower-case letters on the keyboard instead of capital letters like most other keyboards? That’s part of Google’s requirements. For a small child learning how to read and type, it’s important that a key be marked with what it will print on the screen when pressed. Ingenious! (source: https://www.androidcentral.com)

Besides the Chromebook’s educational oriented specifications, it also connects the world of education. “Google shared the fact that 30m Chromebooks are now used in education which is up by 5m from its last reported figures back in 2018. This growth can partially be attributed to the education systems of many countries choosing to use Chrome OS devices and G Suite in their classrooms.” (source: https://www.techradar.com)

Therefore, running Fable Blockly on Chromebooks is allowing us to reach students and teachers across the globe. Our company’s mission is working hand in hand with the latest software release: to make Fable as widely available as possible to students globally.

What is new in our Fable Blockly Chromebook App?

Most of the features that you are familiar with are present here as well. For example, you can easily move a Fable Joint, change the color of any module, or even play a custom sound that you’ve recorded. Additionally, there are some platform-exclusive features!

• Code wirelessly without needing a cabled connection between the Chromebook and the Fable Hub – just use Bluetooth!
• You can use the new text-to-speech block if you want the Chromebook to say something out loud.
• You can use the built-in accelerometer sensor to detect the rotation of the device for different uses (e.g. plotting it or setting the speed of the Fable Spin).
• On those Chromebooks that have a touch screen, you can use the touch blocks if you want to see how many fingers are touching the screen, or the average position of those fingers.
• Finally, the Chromebook can detect if it’s being shaken. You can (and should) use that as an event trigger for something ridiculously cool!

You can already download the app! Just visit the Play Store or our download page.

Do you want to try out some of the new features in an engaging lesson plan?