The purpose of electronic flashcards is to enable students to master a large mass of course content. Flashcards are more than memory tools. They are applicable to problem solving and thought processes of almost every kind.
To understand electronic flashcards, imagine that you have a stack of real cards in your hands. Each card has a question on one side and the answer on the other. Start by reading the question on the first card and try to answer it in your mind. Then flip the card over and look at the answer. If you get the question right, put the card on the table beside you. If you don't know the answer, put the card at the bottom of the stack in your hands. Continue doing this until you have answered all the cards correctly and they are all on the table, and none of them remain in your hands. In a normal study session like this, you would get the easy cards right after one or two passes, while the difficult cards might take five to ten.
Our students tell us that they can learn what normally takes six hours in about a half an hour. Everything that they need to know is in one place.
We have made a discovery that has revolutionized learning. That discovery is that all courses of study, whether it be mathematics, social studies, science, or language arts, are reducible to tiny fact units that are analogous to atoms in science. In fact, the mind retains learning in the same fact units. That discovery has made several things possible:
The system works very well for 98% of the content taught in schools, from preschool to graduate school.
By viewing only one fact unit at a time, the material is made as simple as humanly possible. Extraneous and superfluous verbiage is removed. It is rare that students need tutoring when they use our system. When they do, we provide it by telephone or e-mail free of charge.
Students have the ability to separate what they know from what they don't know. By continually eliminating material as it is learned, students are certain that they have mastered all of the content. The unlearned material is contained in an organized way until it is learned.
Note taking is unnecessary. All of the information will be learned and none of it will escape.
When learning, it is important to set the mind up to be receptive to the information to be learned. We facilitate this by introducing each fact unit with a question. The question is as short as possible, and stimulates the mind to wonder about the answer. This produces active learning. Furthermore, every flashcard is illustrated with a picture. This associates symbolic concepts with visual images and accelerates the learning process.
Flashcard writing is a special art and science. Over a several year period we have written over 130 static Web pages on the process of writing flashcards and transferred most of this information into a teaching program using flashcards themselves. We have also produced video training programs on this subject. Flashcards are designed to teach, and flashcard authors must have an aptitude for teaching. We use both text and graphics for cognitive and visual learners.
If you are homeschooling, the superintendent of schools will probably ask you for a curriculum. You can download ours by clicking
here.
Our system is designed to remember the status of every flashcard for every individual student. This requires a huge database and thousands of servers worldwide. There is never a charge for our services, and students can begin learning with the system in a matter of minutes.