Flashcard software with dynamic memory

[Reya]

I found some flashcard software I now wouldn't want to live without: Full Recall, which is available at fullrecall.com. (It's $35, but download it and try it out for free, first.)

 

This software lets you create different flashcard sets, and it figures out from your responses how well you remember certain cards and that particular set overall and schedules reviews accordingly. As we've gotten beyond the halfway mark in Cambridge Latin I, vocab became an issue for us. There was no way to review all the cards regularly--there are just too many--but DS was forgetting too many words as we went, even though he has to correctly recall a word 5 times Latin-English and 5 times English-Latin before it's retired to our "review" pile.

 

Full Recall is a life saver, though, as it only presents the words he's likely to start forgetting soon. And you can set up different sets of the same words for different kids, so their review needs are tracked separately even if you're doing the same lessons with them.

 

I told the creator that his software would be awesome for homeschoolers; I think he doesn't believe me how much we need this. Try it! It's good for any kind of flashcard-type information--Bible verses, history identifications, science vocab, whatever, not just language. It's my new favorite homeschooling tool!

[Penny]

 

Full Recall is a life saver, though, as it only presents the words he's likely to start forgetting soon. And you can set up different sets of the same words for different kids, so their review needs are tracked separately even if you're doing the same lessons with them.

 

 

How does it track review needs? I too am having problem with just too much info to remember!

[Kuovonne]

I *love* the spaced repetition software that we use for memory work. We use Anki, which is free, but a bit difficult to figure out.

 

Here's how our software works. I throw everything in it: foreign language vocabulary, poems, prayers, bible verses, math facts, phonograms, skip counting, geography, science facts, etc. It supports text, words, and pictures. Sparkle spends 2-10 minutes per day doing memory work on the computer. The computer presents her with a question. She says or thinks the answer. Then she clicks "show answer." She compares her answer with the correct answer. If she got it wrong, she clicks "again." If she got it right, she clicks "hard," "good," or "easy," depending on how much she had to think to get the answer. Then it shows her the next question. The computer calculates how long to wait before showing her each question again. If she missed a question, she'll see it again in a few minutes. If she got it right, it might be a few days to a few years before she sees it again, depending on how many times she's gotten it right.

 

Another thing I really like is the flashcards I set up for math facts are linked to each other so that questions for each "fact family" are spaced out. For example, if "5-3=?" and "5-2=?" are due at the same time, the program knows that they're really asking the same thing and won't show the questions one right after the other.

 

Oh, and Sparkle has about a thousand "flashcards" in her deck. There's no way that I could manage that many physical flashcards.

Edited March 30, 2010 by Kuovonne

[skueppers]

Thanks for the tip about Anki, I downloaded it today and started building a deck for myself!

[abreakfromlife]

I love that Anki!!! I downloaded it too and downloaded 8 decks other ppl made, and then made one myself. I'm so excited to use it!

[abreakfromlife]

Kuovonne - do you have one mass deck that you throw everything in? Or do you have it separated out by poems, verses, vocab, math, science, etc.....and how do you do the poems, verses, and phonograms? Do you give a line of a poem and ask for the next line? Leave a blank in the line and have her fill in the word?

[Kuovonne]

Kuovonne - do you have one mass deck that you throw everything in? Or do you have it separated out by poems, verses, vocab, math, science, etc.....

 

Yup, one massive deck. I use tags to identify the different categories (verses, math, phonograms, grammar, etc.) I find it works best to have one deck per person, after all, the goal is to have all the info in one brain with random access to all the info. For a while I separated out foreign language vocabulary, but as Sparkle doesn't many words yet, it was easier to have just one deck.

 

and how do you do the poems, verses, and phonograms? Do you give a line of a poem and ask for the next line? Leave a blank in the line and have her fill in the word?

 

Usually I have Sparkle first memorize the poem or verse outside of Anki. Then after she has it memorized, I add it to Anki. For poems, I prompt her with the title and author of the poem. For verses, I prompt her with the first few words of the verse. Sparkle also had all her phonograms memorized before starting Anki. I prompt her with the phonogram (and some surrounding text in the card model for context) and the answer is a combination of a written cue for the sounds and a sound file with the sounds.

 

Sparkle has been using Anki for a little over a year and I love it. She now has some items (like phonograms) that she won't need to review for a year or two. At first I was a little nervous about starting such a program with a young child (she was five at the time) but it has worked out beautifully. At first I did many of the mechanics for her (reading the questions, clicking the answers, etc.) but now she can do it by herself.

Edited April 1, 2010 by Kuovonne

[Dee in MI]

I have been using Mnemosyne or Anki for a couple of years. I keep separate decks for each subject. We are learning two languages, and we do them at different times of the day to try to keep the vocabulary straight. I once tried putting math facts in the middle of a Latin deck, and my son found it very jarring.

[Kuovonne]

I have been using Mnemosyne or Anki for a couple of years. I keep separate decks for each subject. We are learning two languages, and we do them at different times of the day to try to keep the vocabulary straight. I once tried putting math facts in the middle of a Latin deck, and my son found it very jarring.

 

 

Hi Dee,

 

You were one of the people who introduced Anki to me in this thread. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU

 

I'm shocked at how many threads there are where people ask about systems for memory work and totally ignore posts about spaced repetition software. It's a shame. I tried the other methods (binders, index cards, etc.) before I found Anki, and I will never go back.

 

Since you are doing multiple languages with similar scripts, it makes sense for you to have different decks for each language. When Sparkle's vocabulary gets larger, or if I ever add a second language, I might split off her foreign language back into its own deck again.

 

I think that Sparkle hasn't balked at the total mish-mash of stuff in her Anki deck because it's been that way from the beginning. I only recently added the math facts and the US States and Sparkle wasn't surprised by suddenly seeing these things at all. I also like having everything in one deck because then I can throw in stuff that doesn't really fit in anywere else, like siblings birthdates, phone numbers, and safety rules (stop, drop, and roll).

 

Amusing side note: my younger daughter has been begging for her own Anki deck since she was three. I keep telling her that she has to learn to read first.

[Penny]

Another thank you for Anki!

 

Question: I can't use this for Latin vocab because I don't know how to insert macrons.

 

Does anyone know how to do this?

 

(Here is a smiley face that my son (who is sitting here, bugging me) insists on inserting, so have a great day.):001_smile:

[Kuovonne]

Question: I can't use this for Latin vocab because I don't know how to insert macrons.

 

Does anyone know how to do this?

 

 

When I want to insert a character that I can't type easily I usually copy and paste it from somewhere that has it. I also lookup characters in Word using the "Insert Symbol" feature.

[Dee in MI]

I'm pasting this from a different post that I wrote:

 

A big help for me in learning my grammar and especially my vocabulary is my flashcard program, Mnemosyne. But first I had to learn to type my vocabulary. I have Windows XP. I followed the instructions on this web site:

 

http://www.studyspanish.com/accents/typing.htm

 

and now I have the option of setting my keyboard up as United States-International. This allows me to type accents, tildes, and the cute upside-down punctuation (what IS up with that?)

 

This also lead me to the solution of a problem I've been trying to figure out every since we started Latin - how to do macrons. Follow the same instructions, but choose the Maori keyboard. Apparently, the Maori language uses macrons. With the Maori keyboard chosen, you add a macron by hitting the tilde button before typing the vowel.

 

One little note: With the International keyboard you type a ñ by hitting the shift-tilde, then an n. With the Maori keyboard, you just hit the tilde button, without the shift, before you type the vowel.

 

With Windows XP it is very simple to switch between keyboards during the course of the day once you've added a different keyboard definition. A little keyboard icon is added to the bottom of my screen, and I hit it to change keyboard definitions.

 

Sorry if this explanation is a little confusing to follow. I found the Learn Spanish website instructions very clear.

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[Penny]

Dee,

 

You are wonderful!!! I did it!!!! I can type macrons and switch easily between keyboards!!

 

Hurrah!!!!!

 

 

Thank you soOOOOOOOOO much!

 

:001_smile::thumbup::party::hurray:

[Dee in MI]

You're welcome. And what WOULD we do without the maori ;)