Things Every Learner Needs to Know About Effective Learning
thestempedia.com
thestempedia.com
As an elementary school teacher and a MSc Psych student, I can tell you that spaced repetition is the best way for learning facts. And it's not just my fancy - here's one of the many studies that prove it:
"Practice tests, spaced practice, and successive relearning: Tips for classroom use and for guiding students’ learning." http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-13426-004
You can google the paper and get it free online.
While we're at it, learning styles are not a real thing: https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/04/03/another-nail-in-the-cof...
If you need more proof, just read the papers in the references.
If someone asked me what the two most important things for an average person to know about learning, it would be that 1. Ebbinghaus's "Forgetting Curve" is real, and you will forget most things that you learn within 30 days if you don't review them properly and 2. Spaced repetition, especially aided by software such as Anki, is the best way for the average person to learn and retain large amounts of information.
Now, if one is keen, you can upgrade you learning with the use of mnemonics, both mental and visual, and drawing things helps immensely: https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/11/22/the-act-of-drawing-some...
But for the average person that won't put in the extra effort, 1. Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve and 2. Spaced Repetition are probably the most important things to know about.
It's actually designed for this use case around spaced repetition and it's designed to be a knowledge manager AROUND spaced repetition tools.
I should have cloud sync support in the next release (1-2 weeks) which will allow you to keep your data in the cloud and sync it between machines. Initially it will just support Firebase but I have plans to support other cloud providers via plugins.
I'd also like to support end to end encryption so that you don't have to worry about people reading your data.
There's a huge Hacker News about Polar here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18219960
It also supports PDFs, text and area highlights, comments, flashcards and sync with Anki.
The initial response after our release has been amazing. The user base is really engaged with thousands of monthly active users and contributors.
Anyway. Take it for a spin. It's free and Open Source.
If I had imagine a way in which the two could work together, it would be for Polar to be able to read from the Zotero library.
Are you guys on speaking terms with the Zotero team?
Anyway.. So, unsurprisingly, it doesn't prove spaced repetition is the best way. It talks about another paper that looked at 10 methods, and found only 2 were 'highly effective'[0], spaced repetition and practice tests. Even if spaced repetition had been the single best way, and they had tried every possible learning method, not just 10 methods, that would be nowhere near proving it. (The next study might find something entirely different, as continually happens in science.)
So, sorry if that seemed uselessly pedantic. p.s. I do use Anki though. Or I did. Not sure how useful it is, although better than no study, if that's the alternative. I used an ancient Windows program years ago for learning Spanish, which was similar, but also had audio of a Spanish woman saying the words to go with the written word; I seemed to learn more from that.
[0] The 'utility' scale in the other paper seemed to have only 3 degrees - low, moderate, high.
The paper I linked is the shortest one on the topic, and you're right, it doesn't have all the info for those that want to go deeper.
Again, my claims are that: 1. Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve is real, although probably not as bad as he/we thought (two latest papers that I have on it: DOI: 10.1016/j.jmp.2010.08.009, DOI: 10/f7vfcn); 2. Spaced Repetition is the best way to beat Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve for most people (I read a bunch of articles--the DOI's I still have saved are the following, but I can't remember which papers were better than others - DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-6916.2006.00012.x, DOI: 10.1177/1529100612453266 <-this one is the one on which the article I linked is based, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/stl0000036).
I could look for more, I haven't had to prove this for a long time, however, like I said, I love to be wrong (especially since I use this for my students, so if there's a better way, I'd like to know!). Do you have any links to studies that contradict 1. Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve and 2. Spaced Repetition as the best way to learn facts?
Cheers man, I'm happy you forced me to dig up these papers :)
-TOF
[0] I guess it was a 'philosophical' objection - no, I don't have a better method on offer, just being sceptical of..loose claims.
I agree with you. Learning styles are bogus. You should however avoid BPS as a source because they push a surprising amount of nonsense.
Is there a common alternative to Anki out there? Something a little more user friendly?
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