Yesterday on the Google Developers Blog, Editor Scott Knaster posted an article about a fascinating new Google Developers Live (GDL) learning tool for absorbing not only tech, but language too. While everyone knows about Google translate, the work being done in applying the technology is less visible to most of us. Check out the potential of another Google beta product.
Developers interested in learning about anything Google deploys now have an interactive, rich media forum to learn and share on, just for those of you who did not know. The GDL platform integrates live presentations plus Q & A so that Google developers can more effectively learn about Android, Chrome, Maps, YouTube, or any Google platform. Now, with the suggestion of a developer advocate in Tokyo named Eiji Kitamura, non-English speakers in these forums can simultaneously learn tech and language.
The screenshot below shows a Google Map Developers Live stream with the CC button activated. For developers who speak other than English, selecting “Translate Captions Beta” and the transcribed close captions (in this case English) allows them to get a sort of dual process theory learning benefit. While the cognitive method or benefit has not been announced here, clearly the coming use potential is intriguing.
Google Developers Live goes multi-lingual cognitive dualityAs Eiji suggests, “Learning English and technology at the same time is a killer feature, because it is time efficient, practical, and enjoyable.” Now think of “transcribing” for all languages, then if you want to really “reach out” into potential, study CLARION via this paper (PDF) by Ron Sun delving into creative problem solving.
According to Knaster, Kitamura’s idea has been so popular in the community re-posts of his original one on Google Relations Japan have been created in Korean, Spanish, and Hebrew already. Now a new learning synthesis where implicit and explicit processes are touched upon, even enhanced, would seem to be the latest Google playground for innovation. While it is a stretch to assume Google is at play in the land of everyone’s cognitive wheelhouse, it is not beyond the realm of possibility to consider interjecting such an “experiment” into a forum of very, very smart people.
This Google Bit will be an interesting one to watch.
