Drill and Practice - Giving Flashcards a New Look
In the years we have been involved with a book on technology integration, we have used a variety of drill and practice examples. Software for practicing keyboarding skills and developing proficiency in letter-sound correspondence in young readers made good examples. Practicing math facts (e.g., addition, multiplication) is also the focus of software many schools purchase. We thought you might appreciate a different example explaining how a study technique used by students at all levels might be improved through the use of digital technology.
What we have in mind is student use of flashcards. Elementary students have used flashcards to drill on math facts for decades and we commonly see university students studying for anatomy or geology examinations using nearly the same procedure. Flashcards provide individuals or individuals within small groups a way to systematically practice retrieval and evaluate understanding both of which are important and documented ways to improve performance and retention (Rohrer, & Pashler, 2010). We assume you understand how flashcards are traditionally used from observation if not from personal experience. In a typical approach a student has a stack of cards with a question on one side of each card and a response of the other side. Elementary math fact cards may have been purchased commercially, but the review material used by college students was probably generated by the learner. When a few minutes are available, a student brings out the cards and begins going through the stack. Do you know the answer to the math problem? Do you remember the origin and insertion for the muscle listed? You flip the card over to see if you were correct. Perhaps you developed a variant of this approach you thought improved the process. You may have discarded each card after initial consideration into a “I know that” pile or a “I don’t know that pile” and then spend more time with the “I don’t know that pile” instead of going through the entire stack a second time.
Researchers have considered how the use of review techniques of this type might be optimized. These techniques might involve how frequently you view cards with information you do not know versus cards with information you do know or on how many different days you review material. Some of these findings and other inherent advantages of digital media are now incorporated in free or low cost software or services you can find and use online or download to your personal device.