14 replies to this topic

[Mick Matousek]

From time to time, everyone has used, or needed, or known someone who needed a flashcard program. This topic is intended to be a repository of everyone's knowledge of Mac flashcard programs and their URL locations. A short first hand user comment about each product would be nice. This should be a handy resource. Clearly, those that interface best with Accordance or Accordance exports should be noted.

I noticed one today that is simple and multi-language friendly. It is shareware with free demo.
Flash Cards

Versiontracker Search
and
MacUpdate Search
and
The Accordance Forum Posts

Feel free to post your 'positive' observation on any of the programs you know about. I'll let Joe talk about Flashcord.

[Joe Weaks]

The first thing I'd recommend are physical flashcards. I simply don't think computer-based flashcards have near the pedagogical effectiveness. You can go with something like the Vis-Ed cards, but I created my own back in the day when I did flashcards. Wrote them out a lot, which is great for learning in and of itself. Then I created fancier ones using Accordance.

I asked Accordance for every Greek word occurring between 10 and 30 times. I already had down 30+, and I decided when teaching NT Greek that anything under 10 is best to wait until you encounter it.
Once I had the list in Accordance in an Analysis window, I wrote a script to parse the data, and get the sorting correct. The cards include on their back the definition, the part of speech and the frequency. Here's how it looks:
 FlashcardSample.png   49.73K   102 downloads

I saved the file as a 92-page PDF file with 15 cards per sheet, with words sorted according to frequency... the first 46 pages are the Greek words, and the second are the "backs". So, to use the file, just print out the first 46 pages, then flip them over and print out the second 46 on the back. A little slice and dice on a paper cutter and you're set.

Here's a copy of the PDF file if you want to have a go at it: GNTWord10-30Flashcards.pdf


FlashCord
As for FlashCord... it does one thing (and does it well). It is a bare bones flashcard program that uses an Accordance Analysis window as its source data file. In this way, you can create on-the-fly flashcards for quizzing on any Hebrew bible or Greek bible section you want. Let's say you want to learn every word in Mark that starts with "mu". Why, I've know idea... but find it in Accordance and the accompanying Analysis window saved as a text file is the source for the program. The package comes with a very helpful and very out of date ReadMe file.
You can find FlashCord here.

Edited by Joe Weaks, 12 May 2007 - 12:38 AM.

[danzac]

see my flashcard roundup http://www.deinde.or...eek-flashcards/

[NHG]

The first thing I'd recommend are physical flashcards. I simply don't think computer-based flashcards have near the pedagogical effectiveness. You can go with something like the Vis-Ed cards, but I created my own back in the day when I did flashcards. Wrote them out a lot, which is great for learning in and of itself. Then I created fancier ones using Accordance.....

A few friends of mine have really benefitted from this program - many thanks!

I blogged it here if people want some screencasts of how to do it themselves. It took me a while to figure out so I thought I'd try to help people access this great resource. If you have any corrections, please let me know....

Accordance and Flashcord tutorial:
http://thegutierrezg...and-accordance/

Edited by NHG, 19 March 2009 - 06:06 PM.

[FC2143]

Mental Case

http://www.maccoremac.com/

From the web site: "Mental Case brings premium quality flash cards to your Mac and iPhone. Use it to learn a language, memorize trivia, or study for an exam. Enter your information directly, or import it from online sources like The Flashcard Exchange. Mental Case automatically generates lessons for you, syncs them to your iPhone or iPod touch, and even tells you when to study."

Best flashcard app for the Mac, IMHO.

[Thomas]

How can it be that no one has mentioned iFlash. It behaves just like a stack of cards, lets me add audio, images, supports multiple languages (including remembering a keyboard for each side so you don't have to switch back and forth), has timers, scoring, etc. iFlash is simple to use, and you can export an Accordance generated analysis list, get it ready in TextWrangler, import it into iFlash and start memorizing. Marking a card you know is just a tap of the spacebar, and move to the next card.

Did I mention iFlash already?

[Thomas]

Ok, fine. I'll mention Flashcard Exchange. It's a collaborative site that is free. It supports Unicode 100%. For Mac users entering Hebrew, use Firefox since there's a glitch specifically with entering the dagesh (esp. גּ) using Safari, go figure. Here is a sample of the kind of stuff you can add for students while going through a standard Hebrew grammar: http://www.flashcard...ser/view/363004.

There are some drawbacks, e.g. you can't simply combine separate card sets, so making one massive card set has to be done by hand. A more robust version, i.e $19.95, allows you to add audio.

It's a good option in those cross-platform situations where you still have students using Windows based computers. For the Mac folk, they're able to export and import into iFlash.

Edited by Thomas, 20 March 2009 - 10:14 AM.

[D. Voth]

There is now a iPhone app to go with iFlash. iFlash Touch is free, but requires the latest version of iFlash.

[Joe Weaks]

I have just created a new tool that takes any Analysis results you create in Accordance and allows you to convert that into a tab delimited file ready to be used as a data set for the flashcard program of your choice.
I basically reworked some code from the FlashCord flashcard program and packaged it as a droplet app that gives you quick access to the functionality.
You can find more info here:
FlashCord File Converter

[GJH]

Not sure if anyone is still reading this post, but a great Mac flashcard program is ProVoc. Although it's no longer being actively developed the current feature set is fantastic, including variety of tests, imports, audio & image attachments to words, iPod syncing, etc. There's already heaps of Greek & Hebrew vocab lists posted online. (Plus the source code is available if anyone wants to continue tweaking it).

Oh, and best of all it's free!

http://www.arizona-software.ch/provoc/

Edited by GJH, 30 July 2009 - 08:19 AM.

[Mick Matousek]

Keep Your Word -Freestyle vocabulary cataloger and flashcards trainer for Mac OS X and iPhone.

[Cameron]

I have both Flashcards deluxe, which is totally cool in it's presentation on the iPhone, and iFlash touch.
The most impressive <to me> is the combined mac application & iphone application of iFlash Touch. This allows you to develop your flashcards on your MAC and also reference them on your iPhone. Multi-sided cards and intelligent algorithms for adding / excluding them into your flashcard sequencing.

I'm a missionary in South Africa learning Zulu, so the iFlash application is coming in very handy in my studies. Although my iPhone just recently went swimming, which has really crimped my study style ;-)

Cam

Edited by Cameron, 16 September 2009 - 11:27 AM.

[Mick Matousek]

Another new one: KEEP YOUR WORD

Collect vocabulary.

• Import vocabulary lists from a CSV file, download a dictionary from wordsparade.com or add words to the Quick Entry window while browsing the web or watching a movie.
• Manually classify vocabulary.
• Drag and drop words to and from any of the default categories. Add, delete, rename, relocate categories as you wish.
• Automatically classify vocabulary.
• Smart Groups, similar to iTunes smart lists, are your friends. Tag your words, add comments, and let the app do the rest.
• Memorize your vocabulary.
• Four exercise modes are waiting for you: Flash Cards, Quick Quiz, Printed Test and Written Test. Keep Your Word tracks your progress as you drill your vocabulary.
• Printable bingo games.
• Printable flash cards.
• Words and flashcards support audio and images.
• Twitter integration.
• iChat Theater integration.
• iPhone client.
• You don’t need to be a computer expert to use it.

[mikes]

Mental Case

http://www.maccoremac.com/

From the web site: "Mental Case brings premium quality flash cards to your Mac and iPhone. Use it to learn a language, memorize trivia, or study for an exam. Enter your information directly, or import it from online sources like The Flashcard Exchange. Mental Case automatically generates lessons for you, syncs them to your iPhone or iPod touch, and even tells you when to study."

Best flashcard app for the Mac, IMHO.

I found that mental case is a great product, except when it comes to greek and hebrew. It isn't able to assign a specific font to a question and another to an answer, instead the only way to get it to work is by creating an image for every greek or hebrew prompt... not pretty.

[Bob Kuo]

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to commend Anki (http://ankisrs.net/). It is a free/open source program that runs on multiple platforms (including phones and tablets). It has web synchronization to keep multiple devices in sync. It has tagging to organize individual cards in multiple ways. For me the killer feature is that Anki uses spaced repetition - the cards that I get right I begin to see less often then the cards that I get wrong time and time again. Some words like agape or autos I won't see for two years, while some more difficult or obscure words I will see every day. I've been using Anki for the last 2-3 years and it has greatly helped with my vocabulary acquisition as well as helped me retain it now that I'm out of seminary and don't have a weekly vocab quiz.