In common language, "flashcard" means a card with question on front side and
answer on back side, used as tool for memorizing, such as foreign language
vocabulary. On a computer, we can have the question be a sentence or phrase
with a word missing, and the answer can be that missing word. The computer
presents the missing-word question, the user types in the missing word,
and the computer compares the user's answer with the correct answer, i.e.
the word that was actually missing.
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But to use flashcards to effectively learn the vocabulary, you need a
good system for drilling them to learn them initially then for stretching
the user's memory to longer and longer timespan. My online flashcard program
includes both a coach towards the correct answer (see the
riddle-guessing
demo for this by itself), to get the answer into the user's short-term
memory, then the "all but one" (delay-doubling) algorithm for stretching
that memory to medium-term (a few minutes to a couple days) and finally
to long-term memory (more than a couple days).
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The online program includes separate master decks for common English
words in context, English-to-Spanish translations in context,
English-to-Mandarin (no context), several pre-reading exercises (single
letters in context), and demonstrations of this algorithm for advertising.
Before starting the drill, you need to choose one of those master decks
and import some cards from that master deck into your personal deck,
which will place them initially in your "input queue". After you start
trying to learn a card, unless you get it right the first time,
it will be in "Hurdles", or if you got it correct without help
then it'll go to the "Delay queue", where it will be set aside per the delay-doubling schedule for later
re-testing.
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All uses of the all-but-one online program are available via this login form.
For a quick demo using a public shared account, log in as user 'guest1'
with password 'free'. For serious use, ask me to set up your
individual account. After you're logged in either way, select
[Start 'all but one' flashcard program]. After you have some cards
imported, select one of the radio buttons for finish just one card then stop, or
finish entire delay-queue then stop, or delay+hurdles, or delay+hurdles+new.
Then click the
button to do one card and it'll proceed to successive cards if
you selected anything except finish just one card. When you are about
ready to quit, select the option to finish just one card, then go ahead
and finish it before quitting the program.
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For people wishing to learn English (ESL or pre-school), who have already
finished the pre-reading exercises, there's also a human-coach mode operated
by me (or anyone else trained properly) where the coach operates the program,
the program shows a word, the student reads it out loud and uses it in
a sentence/phrase or tells its meaning, and the coach checks whether the
student's response was correct (without needing any coaching) or not.
This mode also includes pre-pre-reading, i.e. reading single letters
out loud and using them as first letters of words. The whole ESL sequence is
thus: pre-pre-reading letters out loud, pre-reading typing in missing
letters, reading words out loud, and finally typing in missing words
spelled correctly.
For a demo of human-coach user-out-loud mode, you'll need to meet with me in-person.