4 ms·
Just wondering if anyone has tried combining Anki with handwriting for improved retention? (any personal experiments?) In language learning, memorizing words i
by wenc 6y ago
Just wondering if anyone has tried combining Anki with handwriting for improved retention? (any personal experiments?)
In language learning, memorizing words in a shallow way tends to not be as helpful as memorizing them in a sentence (shallow vs deep encoding). One can try to ankify sentences, but it's too easy to click on the green button and fool oneself that one has mastered the sentence. Anki works great for snippets of atomic knowledge but doesn't work as well for sequential/series knowledge like sentences.
On the other hand, there's another method called the Gold List method which is a pen-and-paper based SRS system which requires writing out complete sentences and testing recall every 2 weeks or so. Pen-and-paper folks like it, but due to the limitations of paper, implementing a proper SRS is far too tedious.
What if one were to use Anki for the SRS part, and handwrite the responses? Handwriting sounds tedious, but I wonder if it helps deepen the encoding? (by forcing reconstruction of the sentence, slowing one down enough to dwell on the form and grammar, as well as adding a physical element to the task)
- codyb 6y agoI’ve used Anki prior and always wished there was an easy way to inject a bit of randomness into it. For instance, you could have the idea of a “template” such as <Pronoun> <Tense of to go> <Place> and <Same Tense of to see> a <Noun>. A lot of times things probably would be a bit non sensical such as “They went to the bank and saw an apple.” “She will go to the Eiffel Tower to see a motorboat.” But I always thought it would really help me a lot more than the more rote aspects. Of course, then the spaced repetition might be less effective due to the variety of the same card, and it may be more like studying something new.
- IanCal 6y agoI think you can embed JavaScript in a card so you could do this. You'd probably want something to help you create them though.
- mrwebmaster 6y agoI do, but not for language learning, but for mathematical proofs and logic proofs. Example "Prove that the dot product between 2 unit vectors is cos θ".
- Smaug123 6y agoFor me, this may be too big a card, for what it's worth (depending on how you define the dot product). If it's defined as "|a| |b| cos theta", then fine, but if it's defined as "sum(a_i b_i)", there's definite work involved for me.
- cs8o2rjohkpw 6y agoYes. I made an single page app exactly for that. WIP: Achenes: A small typing-only flashcard app https://gitlab.com/beryl/achenes/info https://gitlab.com/beryl/achenes/info
- NoInkling 6y agoI do this for learning Chinese characters. And if for some reason I'm feeling too lazy to physically pick up a pen/pencil, or want to test my IME skills, I can alternatively use the input box that I included on the cards.
- ran3000 6y agoYes, I do this sometimes for math proofs. The point of writing atomic flashcards is to prevent the loss of resolution reviewing questions about wholes (sentences in your case). Mind that atomic does not mean that it has to be about details, I usually create flashcards for each abstraction, that is, besides asking for details, I also write a question for the full sentence. This is one way to prevent the loss of resolution, but sometimes it is time consuming to write all those flashcards (think about a long proof). Another way to do it, is to write down the answer pen-and-paper, that way you are forced to focus on the details, not just the big picture: no loss of resolution.