Memorize anything … in a Flash!—Cramberry
Jen Maney -- School Library Journal, 6/3/2009
I’m a language geek. I studied four languages in college, after taking the full four years of language in high school. I used a lot of flashcards over those eight years, handwritten with tedious care, for most of the vocabulary I learned. They work. I can still remember how to say “nuclear weapons” in Russian. Not that that’s particularly useful, but you get my point. Flashcards work. They are also simple, easy to create, and easy to carry around. But nowadays, netbooks, iPhones, and laptops have replaced highlighters, index cards, and sticky notes. So get with the times! Try using electronic flashcards.Cramberry is a simple online tool that lets you create and share collections of online flashcards. Make an account, create a collection, or deck, and start studying. Or maybe you don’t want to create a deck. You want a deck that’s all ready to go. OK, lazy bones, search Cramberry and see if someone else has already created a collection that fits your needs. I found a bunch of flash cards for Spanish and Japanese words, which I realized that I need to brush up on. But even if no one has done the work for you, even the most time-challenged among us can make a deck in no time.
Once you have a deck, start memorizing by cycling through the cards. You see both sides of the card, and mark correct or incorrect to advance to the next. Cramberry is smarter than us, and keeps tracks of which cards give you trouble and kindly shows them to you more often to help you learn them.
You can share your decks with other Cramberry users and rate their decks. I didn’t see a lot of rated decks on the site, but as more people use it, I can see ratings becoming useful in helping to weed out the bad decks from the good. So if you’re already using Cramberry, rate the decks you borrow, share, and create. That is… if you’re not too lazy.
