I would argue that spaced repetition is one such technology. We’ve known about forgetting curves and spaced repetition as a way of efficiently memorizing data since at least the ’60s, if not before. Yet, even today, it’s hardly used and if you talk to the average person about spaced repetition, they won’t have a clue as to what you’re referring to.
Here we have a really cool technology, which could significantly improve how we learn new information, and it’s being used maybe 5% as often as it should be.
It really needs a personal computer to schedule the repetitions, and we’re only now getting to the point where every schoolchild having their own handheld computer is a somewhat practical proposition.
The Pimsleur series of language courses are just audio, and they use spaced repetition (among other research-backed techniques) without a computer. They’ve got an app now, but the original tapes would work on a Walkman. You’re supposed to do one lesson per day. They’ve scheduled the material to bring vocabulary words up when you’re about to forget them.
Still worse than a computer, since they can’t take feedback on words that you’ve learned better. It only works if your learning rates for different words are what the tape maker expected.
Also this won’t work for the end run of spaced repetition where a well-practiced card might pop up a year after it was last reviewed. The long-lived cards are going to be a very eclectic mix. Then again, school courses usually don’t expect you to retain the stuff from each course past the duration of the course, so this isn’t that much of a shortcoming for education.
I would argue that spaced repetition is one such technology. We’ve known about forgetting curves and spaced repetition as a way of efficiently memorizing data since at least the ’60s, if not before. Yet, even today, it’s hardly used and if you talk to the average person about spaced repetition, they won’t have a clue as to what you’re referring to.
Here we have a really cool technology, which could significantly improve how we learn new information, and it’s being used maybe 5% as often as it should be.
It really needs a personal computer to schedule the repetitions, and we’re only now getting to the point where every schoolchild having their own handheld computer is a somewhat practical proposition.
The Pimsleur series of language courses are just audio, and they use spaced repetition (among other research-backed techniques) without a computer. They’ve got an app now, but the original tapes would work on a Walkman. You’re supposed to do one lesson per day. They’ve scheduled the material to bring vocabulary words up when you’re about to forget them.
Still worse than a computer, since they can’t take feedback on words that you’ve learned better. It only works if your learning rates for different words are what the tape maker expected.
Also this won’t work for the end run of spaced repetition where a well-practiced card might pop up a year after it was last reviewed. The long-lived cards are going to be a very eclectic mix. Then again, school courses usually don’t expect you to retain the stuff from each course past the duration of the course, so this isn’t that much of a shortcoming for education.