Teaching, learning, and remembering don’t have to be
complicated. In my previous Memory Athlete" Tip #1, I described a strategy
based on linking mental images to particular locations in a familiar environment,
such as one's home or yard. Here, Tip 2 describes my invention of a simple
flash-card process that can help accomplish all three educational processes in
a computer slide-show file consisting of only one slide. This one-screen file
can serve as a single composite “flash-card” reservoir of information from
which information can be organized and modified, saved for on- or off-line
study, and always available for self-testing (in principle, as is done with
conventional flash cards). Conventional flash cards are typically limited to
factoids, with a word on one side and definition on the other. But composite
flash cards are fundamentally different because they provide a way to capture
and learn whole cohesively organized concepts as well as factoids.
Moreover, the new type of card captures many
well-established principles of effective learning and memory (Klemm, 2012,
2013). Unlike the common teacher-centric mode that stresses presentation and
explanation, this new system incorporates the student-centered need to encode
and remember presented information, all in the same visual and conceptual
space.
The principle, as in Tip #1 is also based on the idea that
remembering what the information is depends largely on where it is. Here, mental
images are pinned to specific spots in a table in PowerPoint and animated so
that you can browse through the items in proper sequence, one at a time.
The entire process is illustrated with nine key
memory-improvement concepts in a single PowerPoint slide that serves as a “home
page” (Fig. 1). The memory-improvement concepts, represented by clip-art icons
in sequential left-to-right, top-to-bottom order are: 1) enhance motivation, 2)
allocate learning time wisely, 3) organize learning material, 4) make nets of
association, 5) don’t overload working memory, 6) reduce memory interference,
7) don’t multi-task, 8) think about what is to be memorized, and 9) self-test.
Readers can get construction details and download this actual slide show from a
link at
http://03908f9.netsolhost.com/thinkbrain/educational-consultant/
(scroll down to the bottom until you see "Klemm cards").
Fig. 1. Edit view of a PowerPoint slide
containing basic information about nine key concepts of effective learning and
memory. In slide-show play mode, the objects (icon and associated text block)
are coded for animation, so that each icon and associated bullet list appear in
turn upon a mouse click. The opening screen in show mode will ordinarily be
blank or contain the very first icon at upper left. Icons can have hyperlinks
to other sources of information. Mouse click on an icon links to an enlarged
corresponding bullet slide and its hyperlinks.
To illustrate the reasoning in Fig. 1, the mental image of
the first icon conveys the self-evident idea that the fellow without a
parachute is highly motivated to “hang in there.” To mentally link the bullet
points, a learner could visualize him praying he doesn’t slip loose, helping
him to “believe he can hang on.” Then imagine him clutching more desperately
than he needs to, just to “fight boredom.” Then when he lands safely, he can be
visualized as celebrating by playing his “A game” in basketball. As another
example, the second icon of an alarm clock conveys the idea of managing time.
Imagine seeing the clock set 10 minutes before the hour (“10 minute rule’).
Then picture multiples of such a clock (“reserve lots of time”), each appearing
as fast as possible (“don’t procrastinate”). Space the clocks apart (“space
learning”). Silly, yes, but that is what makes such imaging memorable.
The spatial organization of the icons makes it easy to remember
them and even their sequence. During recall required by self-testing or
examinations, remembering the images automatically brings up the associated
bullet-point ideas. To accelerate the speed at which icons can be memorized, a
learner can think of associational links between icons. For example in Fig. 1,
after seeing the motivation icon, an association can be made with the next icon
(clock) by imagining that the parachuting people are looking at a clock to time
how long it will be before they hit the ground.
Options for Use
Organizing and
Presenting Information. The instruction mode is shown on the right side of
Fig. 2. Cards can be created by a teacher, as the basis of a lecture, or by a
student, who constructs it from lecture and/or assigned learning resources. Icons
can be used as hyperlinks to separate slides that contain bullet points, text,
or diagrams. Animating the objects allows them to be displayed one at a time.
Figure 2. Logic flow diagram for
use of the flash card in two different modes: on the left for a single
flash-card study and self-test and on the right for expanded organization or
presentation of learning material. A slide show developed as shown on the right
can still be used for self-test from the single flash card “home.”
A student or teacher could play the complete slide show, or
whatever portion is desired at a particular time, by mouse clicking through the
icons and their bullet lists, and launch into the detail slides by clicking on
the ICON (as opposed to blank space); each detail slide has links on it to return
back either to the bullet list or to the “home” flash card. A link is not
needed to go to the next detail slide is not needed, as each slide in that path
appears on a mouse click on open space. Obviously, this same home card can be
played for self-testing via the flash-card mode process on the left of Fig. 2.
Before clicking, the teacher may want to ask the class what
they think or know about the role of motivation in learning. During or after
explaining the bullet points, the teacher may wish to pause before the next
click to answer questions, orchestrate class discussion, launch a traditional
slide show, show a video clip, conduct a demonstration, conduct a hands-on
activity, or whatever. In an on-line tutorial, a hyper-linked audio file could
provide the instruction.
When all items in the home page are displayed, students see
a grand overview of the content, and, as with matrix notes, it should be easy
to discern cross-cutting relationships among the ideas. In Fig. 1, for example,
students might discern that organizing the material requires thinking hard
about meaning and relationships or that multi-tasking creates interference
effects.
Teachers can spread the instruction across multiple class
periods from the same card (after class one, for example, she would resume in
class two where she left off last in the flash card and repeat with each later
class. Since each subsequent class period brings up the original card, teachers
can click on previously displayed objects as a review. In an on-online environment,
students can self-pace as they work their way through the card’s information.
The teacher may want to tell students in advance to take
notes as each icon is presented. After the lecture, the computer file (the
single flash card) can be e-mailed to students, and they can modify the bullet
points on the basis of the notes they took in class. Alternatively, if students
have computers in class, they can load their copy of the slide show and make
notes directly in their copy. Once in their possession, students can customize
the file and use it again and again for study and self-testing (see below). A
whole semester could be taught this way, with each lecture based on its own
single card.
Flash Card Self-study
and Testing. Cards can be designed simply for study and self-testing (left
side of Fig. 2). Extra slides to expand on a given icon’s mnemonic
representation are added at will, and links to them can be created from any
icon to an expanded bullet list, which in turn has hyperlinks to any number of
extra slides on that topic.
The same approach can be used by students to construct their
own flash cards from textbooks, videos, websites, or other information sources.
This might be an improved way to document Web quests.
With a composite card constructed with each icon and text
box tagged for animation, the learner simple clicks through one item at a time.
Thus, the composite card serves as a study and self-test tool wherein the
learner tries to memorize the icons and the ideas they represent. True self-testing
is easily done when the learner anticipates what should appear upon mouse click
and then adjusts recollection to correct any memory errors.
Students can study a card file in edit mode, which allows
the student to see, all in one place, both the “big picture” and the fine
detail of the information presented in lecture or gleaned from other sources.
One typical problem in education is that academic content is dumped on students
as an overwhelming mass that obscures perspective and context. Students can
easily feel like a rat lost in a maze. But if they could look at the maze from
the top view, they would easily see how to navigate it. When students can see
and think about the total display of information on the home page screen, they
may find it easier to see cross-cutting relationships. Different icons can be
substituted and re-arranged (first “group” the icon and its text box) if needed
to enhance the inherent meaning for a particular student. The student can even
add cells to the table and insert new material and links that were not included
in the original information presentation.
Perceived Benefits
The advantages of this system would seem to include the
following features:
·
Comprehensive. All manner of information can be
packaged into a single card. Intervals between mouse clicks can be used for
other modes of information presentation, discussion, and learning activities.
·
Compact. Everything is all in one place,
viewable as a holistic display, yet the user can drill down via the card’s hyperlinks
to extensive detail within the slide show.
·
Flexible/extensible. Cards can be constructed
for presentation of information from any source: lecture, books, websites, or
whatever. A given card can be modified at any point in time, by either the
teacher or the student. Information content can be expanded simply by adding
new table cells. Major topics can have their own separate and independent
cards. Teachers can readily adapt the system for on-line or in-class teaching.
·
Organized cohesively. Ideas are organized as
topics, and subtopic ideas are shown as associated bullet points. Sequential
order is preserved (left to right, top to bottom). When the user drills down to
a detailed bullet point slide, “return” hyperlinks quickly lead back to the
home page.
·
Studied quickly. Students can view everything at
once and zoom in on parts that need further thought or rehearsal. Students can
modify any part of the slide as needed during the study process.
·
Self-tested in flash-card style. Students can
anticipate what should appear upon the next click and check to see if they had
it correct. Any needed modifications are quickly made on the fly during
self-testing. This design discourages students from glossing over the
memorization process by “looking over” material without really forcing a
self-generated answer.
·
Embodied key memorization principles. This one
approach captures a wide range of generally accepted principles that facilitate
memory. Students and teachers are enabled and encouraged to:
·
Condense content is to essentials (“less is
more”―Süss et al. 2002; Norretranders, 1998).
Memory capacity is limited and easily overwhelmed by too much
information. Moreover, memorization is facilitated by excluding information
that one already knows or can figure out.
·
Organize material by arranging like items in the
same row or order a sequence in which rows are read left-to-right,
top-to-bottom.
·
Chunk items in small groups by putting like
items on the same row of the table.
·
Represent ideas with images, which are far easier
to memorize than words (Rigney and Lutz (1976).
·
Create a spatial organization that itself
facilitates memorization (Vaughn, 2007; Sparrow et al. 2012). Composite flash
cards are a form of “method of loci,” an ancient technique that works because
where information is provides important cues for what information is. Such cues
help in both forming and recalling memory. Because only a few images are on a
given row, it is a trivial task to remember the three or four images on a given
row. To create location “pegs” for images on each row, users could use the
classical number coding system (Klemm, 2011), in which row one would be indexed
by an image of “tie” (as in neckties), row two by “Noah” (as in the Ark), row
three by “ma,” (as in mother), and so on. Thus, for example, in row one a user
can visualize a necktie wrapping around the several images on that row. A user
could also make a visual story line that begins with a tie linked to an image
of the first item on the row, which in turn is lined to the second item, and so
on.
· Capitalize on the convenience of having all
memory processes (encoding, consolidation, retrieval) operate in the same
visual format and space in which information is presented. This composite card
structure is akin to matrix note taking, which offers the added advantage of
making it easier to see cross-cutting relationships that may go undetected in
other forms of note taking (Kiewra et al. 1991). The holistic display of all
information makes it easy to perceive any one item in the same context, while
at the same time making it possible to see two or more items in a new context.
· Learners can self-pace study and review.
Learners can easily self-test frequently and do so in a much more powerful way
than the common approach of just “looking over” the material. True self-testing
is apparently under-utilized by the typical student (Pyc and Rawson, 2010;
Karpicke and Roedinger (2008).
·
The process of creating a composite card is
engaging. Learners simply must think about the material to decide what goes
where, what images are most useful, and what are the minimally useful number of
key words. In my 50 years of learning
and teaching, I have become convinced that thinking about learning material is
the best way to memorize it.
·
Easily constructed and modified. Anyone who
knows how to use presentation software like PowerPoint can easily make, modify,
and navigate the information content.
References
Foer, Joshua. (2011). Moonwalking with Einstein, New
York: Penguin.
Karpicke, Jeffrey D., and Roedinger, Henry L. III. (2008).
The critical importance of retrieval for learning. Science. 319, 966–968.
Kiewra, Kenneth A.; DuBois, Nelson F.; Christian, David;
McShane, Anne; Meyerhoffer, Michelle; Roskelley, David (1991). Note-taking
functions and techniques. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83(2), 240-245.
doi: 10.1037/0022-0663.83.2.240
Klemm, W. R. (2012). Memory Power 101. New York:
Skyhorse.
Klemm, W. R (2013). Better grades. Less effort.
On-line e-book. Bryan, TX: Benecton Press.
Norretranders, T. (1998). The user ilusion. Cutting
cnsciousness down to size. New York: Viking Penguin.
Pyc, Mary A., and Rawson, K. A.
(2010). Why testing improves memory: mediator effectiveness hypothesis.
Science, 330: 335.
Rigney, J. W., and Lutz, K. A.
(1976). Effect of graphic analogies of concepts in chemistry on learning and
attitudes. J. Educ. Psychology. 68, 305–311.
Sparrow, B., Liu, J., and Wegner,
D. M. (2012). Google effects on memory: cognitive consequences of having
information at our fingertips. Science. 333, 776-778.
Süss, H. –M. et al. (2002). “Working-memory capacity
explains reasoning ability—and a little bit more.” Intelligence. 30,261–288.
Vaughn, Dean. (2007). How to remember anything. N.Y.:
St. Martin’s Press
