Flash Cards are No Longer Old-School

My own two boys go through a lot of flash cards at home. With one seventh grader and one fifth grader rarely does a week go by when they haven't had to utilize this "old-school" way of memorizing vocabulary or concepts. They seem to get as much studying done in preparing the flash cards themselves as they do while using once they are made. So, I realize the importance of students writing out their own flash cards. Sometimes though, daily schedules just don't allow them to take the time to write out their own study aides. There are also times when students (my children especially) forget their study materials at school in a desk or locker. It was this later predicament that my youngest son and I found ourselves in this past weekend.

My son was to have a test on Tuesday over the first chapter of his science text. Here it was Saturday and he discovers that he did not bring home his text or any study materials. Now I happen to know the title and publishing company of his science text and that the title of the chapter was "Mapping Earth's Surface". So, I set out on an online quest to find materials having to do with this topic that he could use to study. Had I had his text, I am certain it would have provided me with url's to sites with these types of supportive materials. Since I did not have the text, I was at the mercy of Google. I typed in the title of the chapter and found a few interesting things that he could use; a crossword puzzle, a powerpoint presentation with some of the vocabulary, even a movie about making maps. But the site I stumbled upon that really wowed me, (and prompted this posting) was "The Amazing Flash Card Machine". The link I clicked on lead me to a listing of all the sets of science flashcards made previously by other members. Low and behold, there was a set with the same name as the chapter my son needed to study. I selected the title and started the study session. At this point I had my son come over to the computer and sit down. He had a choice of starting with the word and clicking Flip to see the definition, or visa versa. Not only could my son work with these flash cards online, but there was a button to view them in "printer-friendly" HTML. He worked with them online for a while, but then chose to print them out so he could study the vocab anywhere he wanted.

Not only could a user view the flashcard sets made by others, but they can also create their own. This, I think, would be a great resource for teachers to use with their student. Teachers could go into this site, create a set of flash cards for whatever topic they are teaching, and then give the url for the flash cards to their students to use at home. I was so impressed with site that I had to share my finding with a colleague of mine. When she saw it, she immediately thought of how her own sixteen year-old could use this right away on a quiz on the periodic table of elements. We did a little search on the site and found a set about the topic right away.

Before I started writing this post I wondered whether this resource would be considered to be a Web 2.0 tool or not. (not that it has to be to be included on my blog) But, I decided yes, it is, because a user can publish content on the web and share it with other users. So even though flash cards are an "old-school" tool for memorizing things, this resource gives it a modern update without the cost purchasing index cards every other week.

Give this site a try and let me know what you think or ways that teachers/students could utilize it.