Flashcards
IN WHICH Nikolai tries to find index cards in Russia, and finds that nobody knows what he's talking about.
Flashcards. Index cards.
Few people have heard of them in Russia. (The other day, a student held up a USB flash drive, and said, 'This?' I laughed. No, not that.)
Paper cards are better for memory: when you write cards out, you take advantage of 'kinesthetic memory': 'I remember this because I wrote it down.'
Now, I'm a technology nerd. I have been a big fan of spaced repetition systems like Anki and Quizlet for nearly two decades.
As part of my classes, I also offer access to Expemo from Lingua House, which quizzes students on the material learned in my classes.
But paper cards are better.
Old-school solutions often win out over new-school solutions: old-school nearly always wins.
That's why professors advise taking notes in class: the more senses you use when engaging in something you're learning, the better.
Sight (writing things on a whiteboard), hearing and touch (students writing) are three senses.
If you can involve taste and smell, such as bringing ethnic food to class, that's a win. (I need them to make the 'Smell-O-Vision' a reality so I can share smells over Zoom, haha.)
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