Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Technology Flashcards

I guess we are rarely, truly surprised by technology today. We seemingly can do almost anything!

Nonetheless, I do find myself caught by surprise at times. Here’s a simple example. My oldest son was studying the periodic table for chemistry class and he made himself flashcards to help memorize the symbols. As he got individual elements committed to memory, he would move those cards out of his pile. Simple. We have all done something similar at some point in our schooling experiences.

Yesterday, I came home from work and two of my younger sons are at the computer. The second grader was obviously playing a game. My eighth grader – the technology kid – appeared to be also playing a game, but he showed me that he was actually studying for social studies.

He was studying states and capitals – and he found a site where the flashcards were already made for you! You could “flip” through them, discard ones that you knew, hold on to the ones that you still need to work on, etc.

It wasn’t that I was surprised that the site existed, but it was more that I was surprised that I didn’t think about that possibility when my oldest was making his “old-fashioned” index card flashcards!

The site that my son used was quia.com – he says that they have used it in his school from time to time. Here are two examples of the computer flashcards:


  • States & Capitals


  • Periodic Table -- 40 elements
  • 1 comment:

    Anonymous said...

    Thanks for the link to the elements! Good stuff!

    Gary Scavette
    Chemistry Teacher