Still waiting for the perfect learning tool…

Long working hours, daily commutes, and a newborn son necessitated that I change back from SuperMemo to Anki a few months ago. It’s no longer possible for me to dedicate a daily block of time to sitting in front of the computer and working with SuperMemo.

I miss incremental reading with a passion. I wholeheartedly wish more people would discover it. Maybe then more learning tools incorporating SRS and incremental reading would come to market. I’m tired of having to choose between the mobility of Anki and the incremental reading feature of SuperMemo (I’ve probably made the switch 4-5 times in the past few years).

Every few weeks, I google “incremental reading,” hoping more people have gained interest, but to no avail. Most people who have discovered its power continue to use SuperMemo contentedly. Most people try SuperMemo for a short time, are frustrated by the interface, and proceed with vigorous online criticism. Somewhere in the mix, incremental reading has been labeled an overrated selling point for SuperMemo that has no real value. This is extremely unfortunate.

The truth is in all my years of study, reading (professional and recreational), and language study, I have never discovered a more powerful tool than the SRS / incremental reading combination.

Anki’s iPhone / iPad app is probably the biggest step SRS software has taken in the last ten years, but I don’t believe Anki will implement incremental reading anytime soon. A plugin was designed a couple of years ago that toyed with the idea, but it seems that’s been abandoned. Anki’s designer said specifically that he doesn’t believe incremental reading is a feature his users are interested in and he has no immediate plans for such a feature.

In order of importance, these are the features my ideal learning tool would include:

• an SRS engine;
• incremental reading (ALL text formats: PDF, html, etc.);
• complete mobility and synchronization between devices;
• plugins for third-party reading and browser applications (e.g. Firefox, Kindle, etc.) and would automatically import highlighted text back to the program, along with source information; and
• complete media capability (audio / video)

Such a tool would revolutionalize learning. For a motivated learner, it would blow away ALL currently available  and orthodox forms of education.

A functioning and mobile incremental reading plugin for Anki? A reader with an SRS engine? A real mobile version of SuperMemo? It would be a start. I’ve been waiting for these developments for years now, but they don’t come. Where is my perfect learning tool? Do I have to design it myself?

SuperMemo Wishlist

“Wouldn’t it be great if…?”

Use any program extensively enough, and you’ll have ideas for improvement. Here is my own wish list for the next version of SuperMemo. I would love to hear more ideas…Who knows? Maybe we’ll get the attention of the SuperMemo development team.

• PDF conversion plugin. Reading incrementally is great–I’ll never go back to linear reading. Unfortunately, only plain text and html can be processed by current versions of SuperMemo. Most ebooks are in PDF-related formats. I probably spend as much time formatting poorly converted PDF text in SuperMemo as I do studying.
• Tab-separated value file (*.csv / *.tsv) import feature. SuperMemo allows Q&A format imports but that’s only good for text-only information. I (and I suspect many others) have moved beyond the text-only flash card format. Almost all of my elements contain some media, images at least and, in many cases, video or audio. I almost never import items into my collection (I much prefer to build knowledge from my own incremental reading and extractions), but a .tsv import feature would allow me to use output from SUBS2SRS, a program that creates video flashcards from movies (great for language acquisition).
• A reader. I read everything in SuperMemo: books, emails, news articles, etc. This post gave me an idea. Have you ever used Google Reader or subscribed to an RSS feed? Wouldn’t it be incredible if SuperMemo had this feature?
• My ULTIMATE wish: SuperMemo incorporates its own browser and/or email client. Think of the possibilities. Browse the internet in SuperMemo. Import a page or entire site to your collection to be read incrementally, or simply make extractions from web sites as you surf the web. All overhead of time and effort spent on importing eliminated. If you use an online email client (e.g. GMail), you could process your emails the same way (without having to use the Outlook workaround like in current SuperMemo versions). A browser that is your incremental reader and SRS software. Now that would be powerful. Combine this with a PDF-reading feature, and SuperMemo could literally revolutionize learning.
• Audio-to-text converter. This one is a little silly maybe (other programs already do this…Dragon Naturally Speaking, etc.), but it would a nice powerful feature for SuperMemo. There’s a LOT of great material out there that is ONLY available in audio, mostly lectures. I like learning from the audio format, but having a companion text in my SRS software would guarantee integration of knowledge. As it is now, I type notes as I listen, like I would if I was in a classroom.

Post your ideas!

SUBS2SRS and SuperMemo: Day 2

A new day, new challenges!

Audio flashcards from your favorite film? No problem!

It’s been easy enough to create text/audio-only flashcards in SuperMemo using SUBS2SRS’s output. Two text and an audio component, import the audio file…done. I saved my first card as a template with objects, and introduced the .tsv file into my learning process to be incrementally processed. I’ll extract one movie line at a time, and apply the original template to new extracts. It will take 10-15 seconds to convert each extract into a text-audio-text flashcard (importing the audio file, formatting and placing the text, etc.), and I’ll likely get faster over time. Still far from ideal–a .tsv import function would eliminate the need for this whole process…but I’m satisfied with this workaround.

Audio flashcard for SuperMemo using SUBS2SRS output.

Video flashcards–not there yet.

My next challenge is to create a video flashcard. Anki users  have been doing this for a few years now. Using SUBS2SRS, and with a little preparation in Anki, users can play bits of movies or dramas (with target language subtitles) and Anki will quiz their listening/reading comprehension, using source language subtitles in the answer field. The value of video flashcards is immeasurable. They allow you to study using your contextual (video of person speaking), listening (speaker’s voice), and reading (subtitle) comprehension simultaneously.  They make study much more entertaining. 

SuperMemo: The Challenges of Incrementally Reading PDFs

I recently contacted Piotr Wozniak, SuperMemo’s creator, about the
challenges of incrementally reading PDF files. I made an appeal that some sort
of solution be provided in the next version of the program. Here was his
response:

> I personally suffer due to the PDF pain as much as you, as I do need to
> read a lot of scientific papers that often come in PDF-only format. I
> adopted a number of strategies that depend on the type of article: from
> incremental copy&paste to visual learning (i.e. learning with picture copies
> of the text). The bad news is that the next version of SuperMemo does not
> make much progress in this area. However, I will yet once again forward your
> appeal to a colleague for a thorough technical re-evaluation.
>
> I have a sneaky suspicion that Adobe got a bit of vested interest in
> preventing an easy to-HTML conversion, or the problem is indeed technically
> insurmountable. However, a good plug-in editor from Adobe (like an IE’s
> TWebBrowser uses by SuperMemo) would provide a way around. Last time I
> looked into that issue, we did not have that option.
>
> Please rest assured that, as a user myself, I won’t give up on this
> subject, even though it has been dragging for a couple of years now.

Using SUBS2SRS for SuperMemo

This may be old news for the more experienced SuperMemo users among you (http://tech.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/supermemo/message/3825), but I just learned the hard way that Supermemo does NOT have an import function for .csv or .tsv files. This came as a blow, since I was really looking forward to using a program called “subs2srs.”

For those of you unfamiliar with “subs2srs,” it’s an incredible program for language acquisition. Feed it a video file, along with subtitle files (target language and first language), and it will essentially output flashcards that either have a video or audio clip with screenshot (your choice) in the question portion, and the corresponding subtitle material in the answer.

Narrow Reading

Yesterday I read an article about the benefits of narrow reading on language acquisition. The article is written by Stephen Krashen, a linguistics professor known for his Comprehension Hypothesis (language is acquired, not learned). 

In this article, Krashen proposes that reading narrowly (i.e. books in one particular field, or by one particular author) is more beneficial to language acquisition than reading widely. By reading narrowly, we are repeatedly exposed to a certain vocabulary set and we gain a background knowledge for further reading in that field.

Most EFL readers follow the opposite principle. They feature articles on a variety of topics from as diverse a range of fields as possible. The idea is that this exposure to variety will endow students with a broader vocabulary set and a well-rounded grasp of the language. However, if students truly learn to read by reading, and reading should be pleasurable (Comprehension Hypothesis), then these textbooks are highly ineffective.

Every student has different interests. A textbook with ten articles on ten different subjects will likely contain 7-8 articles that a student has no interest in. This has certainly been the case for me. Those learning a language should select reading that interests them, with very little regard for level or variety.

2011 Summer Obsession: SuperMemo

For me, the beginning of every summer is marked by an obsession. The obsession is generally something I have a history with already, such as fitness, Objectivism, writing, etc. For an unknown reason, at this time of year in particular, a part of my brain randomly chooses one of these interests for rapid further development, to the exclusion of others.

This year, that obsession is SuperMemo–incremental reading, in particular.

I’ve been using SuperMemo for about five years now. For those of you unfamiliar with SuperMemo, it’s a Spaced Repetition System software…the origninal SRS software, in fact.

SuperMemo’s promise is that, if the software is used daily, the knowledge in your brain will reflect at least 95% of your SuperMemo knowledge collection. It fulfills this promise by forcing you to actively recall information just when that information would normally begin to “decay” in your brain (out of misuse). Luckily, the interval between the moment of “decay” becomes longer with each repetition. Knowledge becomes more firmly implanted in our brains with each “recall.” The challenge is recalling knowledge frequently enough to keep it there, but as infrequently as possible (more time to learn new stuff!). SuperMemo makes this calculation and gives you the nudges you need.

In addition to these standard SRS features (you can find several other, easier-to-use programs that work on this principle), SuperMemo has another component that is particularly addictive: incremental reading. With this feature, you may import any number of text or html files to SuperMemo, of any size, and read them incrementally and in parallel.

Knowledge evolves in SuperMemo. An imported book is broken up into important pages. Noteworthy paragraphs are highlighted and processed separately. Paragraphs become sentences, and sentences ultimately become actively-recalled items (question-answer pairs or cloze deletions). It all sounds like glorified memorization until you try it yourself.

I’m enamoured with SuperMemo’s incremental reading for several reasons.

• I’m endowed with confidence that my reading is purposeful. Not only does this confidence make reading more enjoyable, it also increases my sense of responsibility in choosing worthwhile material. I will never forget the important ideas contained in a book I’m reading. That feels good.
• Incremental reading allows me to read widely. One of the realizations you come to early in your experience with incremental reading is that linear reading, or reading one book at a time and working your way through a “reading list,” is vastly inferior to reading books and articles simultaneously, in parallel. It’s more efficient to read in parallel. It’s more entertaining to read in parallel. Most importantly, one’s power to associate seemingly disparate ideas is increased by reading in parallel. Worried about when you’ll get around to that book on your reading list? I don’t. I import it into my knowledge collection and read it in tandem with my other reading, as quickly or slowly as I like.
• Remembering the ideas and principles I encounter in reading allows those ideas to truly integrate with my own ideas and experiences. They become part of me, instead of “going through one ear and out the other.” I can weigh an idea I learned ten years ago against one I learned yesterday, despite elapsed time. Incidentally, this is also the best counter-argument against those who would question the value of memorization in an age when information is at our fingertips.

SuperMemo 2006 has become freeware. Try it, and revolutionize the way you look at reading and knowledge.

 

 

Great Expectations

A week ago, my wife and I decided that nightly “bedtime readings” would form a core component of the ambitious prenatal care plan we have for our seven-week-old child. Only today, as I sat down to write this paragraph, did the irony of my book choice hit me. Dickens’ Great Expectations surely appeals to a broad spectrum of readers but I doubt babies, let alone those unborn, were part of its intended audience. Was I already trying to prepare my blueberry-sized fetus for life’s adversity? No…nothing so dramatic as that. Dickens is on the reading list for my next course. I’ve decided to count this as the first of what I’m sure will be many such attempts at balancing two major long-term goals: furthering my education and raising a family.

A Korean Wedding — Pt. 2

<– Part 1

I was back in Korea, and it was happening – a wedding ten years in the making.

My wife and I divided the workload — I would handle my mother and sister’s visit and our honeymoon, and she the wedding planning. I think I speak for most guys when I say this is a choice arrangement.

A typical Korean wedding has several hundred guests. I remember what 500 people look like from my brother-in-law’s wedding a few years back. Beyond the challenges common to any large wedding, the Korean bride and groom are expected to visit every guest table during the reception. 500 guests translate to 50 table visits. Needless to say, it was with my full approval that my wife and mother-in-law decided our wedding would take place at a smaller venue (smaller weddings are known as “House Weddings”). We limited invitations to 300, of which we expected roughly half to show.

Only half? Are you sure? Yes. So sure, in fact, that the contract with the wedding hall was for approximately 150 guests. I was aghast. What if more show? And besides, why are we inviting people who we know won’t come?

The Korean Bus Driver

Waiting for my usual bus today, I began to worry about which driver I would get. There are five or six drivers assigned to the route I ride most frequently, and all but one of them are very angry with the world. I hoped desperately that I would get one of them, and not the friendly driver. I was running late, and the angry drivers always get me there on time.

Unfortunately, a gloved, waving hand greeted me as I boarded the bus and I immediately began sending apologetic text messages. Sure enough, the trip took 10 minutes longer than most.

My experience today isn’t the norm, however. The Korean bus driver will almost definitely get you there on time. 

In the daily effort to meet what I can only guess must be a ridiculously tight stop schedule, the Korean bus driver probably runs 50 red lights, narrowly misses running over a dozen pedestrians, cuts off at least as many cars, and causes two dozen passengers to fall while boarding or disembarking. The buses here will affect you somehow, either as pedestrian, passenger, or driver.