StudyTag.com

StudyTag Update

2009-03-27T19:20:00.002-04:00

We've been working on a new release of the StudyTag engine over the last year, on improved methods to author content, and on better algorithms to support long term retention and recall. So we are working.

A warm welcome to all our visitors who are coming from the recent blog entries about our site. We have lots of plans to continue to improve the content, presentation, and educational philosophy. Yes, it will even look better too! Welcome to StudyTag.

-Tom

The Simplest Things

2008-10-03T13:09:00.000-04:00

Sometimes the simplest things are, in fact, the most profound. And the smallest changes can have the greatest impact. I believe it is possible to dramatically improve our approach to training and education with just a few simple changes. Changes simple enough that teachers can begin applying them the day they learn them.

To understand the solution, we must first recognize the problem.

The problem is that we leak.

That's right, leak. We leak information.

We very rapidly forget new facts to which we are exposed. If you want to revolutionize training and education, you must fully understand this inherent human weakness. We need to be exposed to information again and again, perhaps even hundreds of times, before we can successfully retain and recall it. This is reality folks. Don't ignore it. Deal with it.

So how do we deal with this without genetically altering humans? Here are the simple steps:

1. Clearly identify the facts you want a student to learn.
2. Provide a method to reinforce those facts over time (over multiple sleep cycles).

Folks, that is it. It is so amazingly simple that it boggles the mind. Have you seen how we actually teach and train our students? We do not do these two things well at all!

Clearly Identify the Facts

Most classes do not clearly identify the specific set of facts to learn. Instead, they take the “guess what I think is important” approach. In this approach, a professor or lecturer stands at the front of the room and drones on and on for hours and hours, over days and days. Eventually, a test is presented to the students. The students are not told exactly what is going to be on the test. Instead, the students get to guess what the instructor thinks is important.

If you guessed right, you get an A.

If you guessed wrong, you fail.

In either case, it is highly unlikely that you will remember more than one or two of the facts within thirty days of the exam.

This failure is clearly demonstrated in the game show Are you Smarter Than a 5^th Grader. We don't remember what we learned in elementary school. Why? Because we leak!

It is really simple folks, if the facts are not systematically reinforced, they are most assuredly forgotten. To fix the problem, clearly identify every fact the student should remember for the long-term. Next, give the students all of these facts in advance. Yes, all of them. If they should know 1000 things give them all 1000. Help them master all 1000. Test them on all 1000.

I know, this is extra work for the educators. They actually need to clearly identify what the students should master. We don't do this today because we think it would take too much time and energy for students to remember all of these facts. The truth is, with the proper reinforcement system in place, it will take less than five minutes a day.

Reinforce the Facts

To retain and successfully recall facts, they need to be reinforced over multiple sleep cycles. Some facts are learned quickly. They may only need to be reinforced a few times. Other facts, for whatever reason, are learned slowly. They may need to be reinforced several hundred times. The problem is, these facts are never the same for two different people. Everyone needs to be reinforcing different facts on entirely different schedules. Admittedly, this is almost impossible to do in a lecture. However, for a computerized tutor, it is remarkably simple.

A computer can be used to build a mind map for each individual student, learning exactly what facts the student knows and doesn't know. The computer can remember every time a student was exposed to a fact, on what date and at what time. The computer can remember each individual student's success in recalling and retaining each and every fact. Finally, the computer can provide a customized reinforcement plan individualized for every single student. As a result, the computer can ensure every single student masters every single fact, and it does this so quickly that to most students, it does not even feel like studying.

This is not a theory folks, it is a fact. For the last two years at StudyTag we have been doing applied research on precisely this method of training. Others have been doing it even longer. It really works. However, don't take our word for it, test it on yourself. Pick something you would like to learn and implement a system of spaced repetition and reinforcement over extended periods of time.

You learn more. Faster. With less effort.

Sometimes the simplest things are, in fact, the most profound. Identify the facts you want your students to learn, all of them, and provide a customized method to reinforce them. You'll be amazed at how smart they become.

Let the knowledge revolution begin.

Training Budgets Waste or Total Waste?

2008-03-01T13:07:00.000-05:00

If your business is interested in learning how to truly compete on a global scale, then it probably needs to get dramatically smarter, about getting smarter.

Why is it that whenever an industry has a down-turn the first budget slashed is training? One week management wants everyone to attend all sorts of training seminars and the next week almost ALL of them are canceled. Why?

I have my own theory as to why training budgets are cut in this way. I propose this theory in the manner of a confession. You see, for most of the past 20 years I've been involved in some form of professional training. I have seen first hand what companies intuitively know, which is that a great deal of the money, time, and energy spent in professional training total is a TOTAL WASTE.

There, I said it, I feel better already.

Unfortunately, this also applies to most on-line training courses. The big difference between on-line training and live training in terms of results is simply that you waste less money with on-line training because you spend less for the course. Not a big win.

Here is a simple test to see how effective your training has been.

List, from memory, five facts you learned at your last all-day training course.

Thirty days after you take that on-line computer training lesson, do you remember even two things you learned?

I doubt it.

Research dating back to Ebbinghaus in 1885 shows us why. The reality is, we are great at forgetting. Perhaps it is time we start applying this research? Or, here's an idea, perhaps we can apply some of the additional research done in human cognition and memory that has been performed since 1885. We do have an additional 122 years of research we could be using. Have you ever read any of it? When I look at most professional training it is certainly clear that your trainers haven't!

Remarkably, whether teaching in schools or training in business, for the the most part, we ignore 122 years of research. We use old and wasteful training methods. Hey Detroit! Interested in learning how to slash your training budgets while achieving dramatically better training results? Want to ensure your employees actually gain and retain the skills and knowledge required to compete in the 21^st century? Here is a hint.

STOP PUTTING YOUR POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS ON-LINE INTO COMPUTER BASED TRAINING SYSTEMS.

Please stop doing that, it just makes me sick. In case you didn't notice, most people are bored to death by PowerPoint presentations. Why do you think putting them on the Internet will suddenly make them more interesting?

There is a dramatically better way to provide training and education. Information worth learning should be properly reinforced so that it is retained and recalled long-term. Here is a thought, if you do training right, you should actually remember what you have learned.

Oh, and an additional benefit of doing training right - if you change your tools and approach, most training sessions should not cost more than $10. Think Charles Shaw training: if you are paying more than $10 a bottle of training, you are paying too much. If your vendors are charging you more than that, get new vendors, or demand that they implement a better system, a system based on real data and research in human cognition and memory.

If your business is going to be competitive in the 21^st Century you are going to have to have some of the most effective training and education programs on the planet. You can do this. First you have to be willing to admit that what you are currently doing is not good enough. Next, you have to change. The tools are ready. The time is right. The secrets are ready to be revealed.

In my next post, I'll tell you the secrets to dramatically reforming your education and training systems, including exactly what needs to change, how to change it, and where you can begin.

Mastery Exams

2007-11-16T14:53:00.000-05:00

Many of our new courses have as their last element a Mastery Exam. A Mastery Exam is a test that includes every fact in the course, displayed in the most difficult mode available (typically fill in the blank). I just took the Presidents lesson in this mode, 128 fill in the blank questions! Here were the results.

Results

Percent Correct:	93%
Time:	21:55
Best Time:	21:55 new!
No. of Questions:	119 of 128

Three typos, and 6 missed answers. Not bad for 128 facts that I haven't been reinforcing lately. I think I'll take it again to observe any increase in speed. My prediction, a dramatic increase in speed closer to my older time, because the neurons have recently been stimulated. Also, a dramatic improvement in quality.... lets see....

Results

Percent Correct:	99%
Time:	15:21
Best Time:	15:21 new!
No. of Questions:	127 of 128

Indeed! Totally nailed it. One typo (spelled Grover Cleveland incorrectly). So what does this mean? I'd suggest that if you are using StudyTag to prepare yourself for an exam that you take a final review session right before the exam. Stir up those neurons and sail through the test. Let me know how it works out for you.

Mastery Test

2007-05-09T12:56:00.000-04:00

Mastery Test
In a prior post I mentioned that I took a test on all 128 presidential facts. You may have wondered how you could take that same test. Well, truth be told, previously you had to ask me or you had to build your own. Well, no more. Now at the end of the presidential course you have the option to take a Mastery Exam, the mastery exam includes all 128 presidential facts. You can skip ahead to this exam in the course and try the comprehensive mastery exam at any time!

Have Fun, Can You Beat My Time and Score?
Percent Correct: 100%
Time: 13:51

Milestone 19

2007-05-09T12:06:00.000-04:00

Milestone 19
Fully Featured Courses

We have recently released a major new feature in StudyTag, "courses". You can now assign courses to yourself and your students, and authors can now easily build quizzes and test across multiple lessons. Of course, you can still study individual lessons in the way that you always have.

Old way:
1. Assign an individual lesson to yourself, and take that lesson until the trophy is strong.
2. Unassign that lesson, and then assign the next lesson to yourself.

New way:
1. Assign a course to yourself.
2. Follow the daily work the course recommends until the course is complete.
3. The course automatically takes you through each of the lessons in the course, including Introduction, Tutor, and Test Modes.

Why the Change?
We added assigning courses to simplify the assigning process. Assign a course and do not worry about assigning and unassigning individual lessons. Assigning courses is more powerful than assigning lessons, and you only have to do it once.

All of the courses need to be updated to best take advantage of the new feature and we will be updating them over the next few weeks.

Presidents Revisited

2007-03-26T10:52:00.000-04:00

The last time I took a test on all 128 presidential facts was September 18, 2006. It took only ten minutes and three seconds. I decided to try again today, I set the presidents test to display all 128 questions, here is how I did:

Gold Trophy - I've Still Got It!
Percent Correct: 98%
Time: 21:50

Wow. It took a long time. I think I spent two minutes or more just trying to remember President Lyndon Johnson's name (36th President Question with Fill in the Blank). I could picture him, remember key events in his administration, but I could not remember his name. I got three questions wrong, all portrait questions (William McKinley, Chester Arthur, Rutherford B. Hayes).

Since I last took a long test I've refreshed this knowledge about 34 times for a total of about 84 minutes. Most of my refreshes were taking short tests of 20 questions. I wonder if I would do as well simply using tutor mode and refreshing a minute at a time (saving 50 minutes of refresh time)? Perhaps something we can test in the future with more students, but I suspect it will work.

I think I'll take this test again in a few minutes to see how much faster my time can improve with one review. I am guessing if I take it again I will take at least 25% off of my time. If so, it may be a good indicator that reviewing material right before you take an exam is a good thing.

Gold Trophy
Percent Correct: 100%
Time: 13:51

Amazing! I shaved one second shy of eight minutes off the time to take the test. Simply reviewing all of the questions once reduced the time to take the test by 36%. This is the fastest I have ever done all 128 questions an achieved a score of 100%. This may indicate the value of priming your memory right before a big exam (reviewing a large set of sample questions). It is definately a technique worthy of further study.

Milestone 18 Highlights

2006-12-21T10:34:00.000-05:00

StudyTag Milestone 18 had over 46 features and enhancements to the basic environment, 7 of the larger enhancements included:

1. Added a new check box setting to settings page for Premium Account: [x].
Accounts only have the "my students" menu selection if this box is checked.
Student accounts do not have this option.

FAMILY are all of the other students accounts under the same parent.
FRIENDS OF PARENT are people a parent makes thier personal friend.

2. Supported privacy settings "Full profile and trophies only visible to friends".

3. Supported privacy setting "Only Approved Members Visible."

4. Supported parental approved content setting "Only approved content is visible." If selected for a student then it only displays approved lessons and courses in searches for that student. Published lessons and groups created by friends and family are automatically approved (but not STAFF unless they have been added as a friend). Students cannot run unapproved lessons. A parent may selectively unapprove of a lesson that was automatically approved because it was certified.

5. Added course certification for Staff. When a course is certified, all of the lessons in the course are automatically certified. If a course is uncertified all of the lessons in that course are NOT UNCERTIFIED.

6. Supported parent/teacher Assign/Unassign pop-up for students. If a user has students then the "Assign | Unassign" menu selection displays a pop-up window so they can assign and unassign the lesson to their students.

7. Changed the menu item "Groups" to "Courses."

The next milestone will take some time, but it will have a major impact on how courses are created and used. After the next milestone we will be officially launching the site!

Milestone 17 Released

2006-11-08T15:05:00.000-05:00

Milestone 17 is officially out the door and on the server. We have also detailed the next two milestones (they are smaller) and should be completed before the end of the year.

More of what was added in Milestone 17:

"My activity report" to the "members" sub-menu to display a summary of the tests taken by the user.
Student accounts for parents and teachers. Currently being tested by staff, this will be available to the public in Milestone 18.
A certified content label (a check mark) and the ability for staff to certify and uncertify lessons.
Staff user status display at the top line of User Profile and User Trophy Room. Status includes: Staff, Active, Frozen.
Global editing capabilities for all published content for Staff users.
Ability to freeze and unfreeze accounts by Staff users.
A display of the outline of the lesson in Introduction Mode. The outline lists readings and questions.
We expanded the BBCODE reference to include (GoogleVideo, YouTube, smily, color, user, today's assignments).
Help, at the top of the page after Settings "Settings | Help | Logout". This link takes the user to the Help page.
Use chat board.
Automated registration email confirmation and reminder notifications for watched forums and assignments.
Ability to display google adwords ads on session start and end pages and on profiles.
Special characters into facts and readings.
Fill in the blank question with a special blank within the question.
A GUI for advanced options for editing a lesson.
Improved Lesson and Facts wizards.
Editor for source documents. These documents are marked up to include facts and readings but keeps the original source material in tact. Bascially a fast way to create a lesson from existing source materials.
Content manager for display documents (About, License, ..., Terms of Use)

Our internal list contained 49 line items. We continue to improve StudyTag for you. Look forward to great new content and features in the near future!

Milestone 17: Tips and Help

2006-10-27T08:28:00.000-04:00

I've been off attending teacher conventions this past month working as a sales agent for a publishing house - one we plan on partnering with for our Homeschool site. It is very interesting going out and meeting teachers, seeing the lecture topics, and visiting the other vendors. During this time we have also been busy with development. There are over 47 specific improvements and enhancements going into StudyTag Milestone 17, some very noticeable ones include:

Tips and Help
Personal Activity Reports
Staff User Status
Introduction Mode Displays Content
Improved Lesson Wizard

Milestone 17 is not fully complete, but over 38 changes have already been posted to the site so you can enjoy them as we create them. Let us know what you think!

Enhancements

2006-09-18T10:40:00.000-04:00

A major enhancement we are currently working on will provide parent/teacher accounts and new activity reports on students - along with a highly advanced security model. I think everyone will really like the results.

Of course, along the way we continue to make enhancement to user experience. We just changed the way fill in the blank questions are displayed because we detected confusion between fill in the blank and multiple choice questions. Also, we are adding an outline to Introduction mode to give the user a context for where they are in the lesson. Although these are minor enhancements we already recognized they make a big difference to the users. By eliminating confusion around fill in the blank questions I think we have made it easier to take a test quickly. I just received my best score by far on the American presidents at 98% in 10 minutes and 3 seconds. The little things are important, and it is our desire to make sure the little things work for you!

Another 60 Seconds Shaved

2006-08-24T09:58:00.000-04:00

I shaved another 60 seconds off of my all presidents time for all 128 questions without loosing any accuracy.

Score: 98%
Questions: 126 of 128
Time: 11:30

I knew all of the questions, but still missed two by misreading the text, in one case I read thirty-first as twenty-first and in the second case read 89 as 98. I suspect a risk of going faster will continue to be misreading the questions. As I take the test I tell when I have really memorized a fact and when I still have to figure it out (for example who is the 28th president I still have to figure out in my head so it slows me down in answering the question).

Still, being able to answer correctly 126 questions in 11 minutes and 30 seconds is a significant improvement in time over just a few tests ago. I am amazed at how quickly our memory can improve if we simply give it a little exercise. Will I shave off another minute if I take the test again in the next few days? I'll try it and let you know.

All Presidents Progress Report

2006-08-19T09:47:00.000-04:00

I find myself interested in the relationship of speed and accuracy. How fast can I answer all of the 128 presidents questions and still retain a great score? Is it beneficial to learn to do the presidents faster and faster? How does it affect long term memory when I learn to answer the questions fast?

On of my goals for StudyTag is to provide authors with real facts and data on how people actually learn. By reviewing StudyTag data over time we hope to continually improve how StudyTag operates and the learning experience. I suspect we will discover many different learning styles and StudyTag will ultimately change how it presents information to each member based on a style that works best for that member - talk about custom education!

For a simple experiment I took the All Presidents Final again today (128 questions), trying to beat my previous best time for 128 questions. My results:

Test Score
Percent Correct: 98%
Time: 12:33
No. of Questions: 126 of 128
Points Just Earned: 6,659
Points This Lesson: 80,612

I shaved another two minutes off of my time (improving my speed a little over 13% again) and was able to keep my accuracy score at 98%. Interestingly enough I got two different questions wrong from yesterday, both of which I'm sure I would have answered correctly if I was going slower! Clearly going faster pushes the brain in different ways. I wonder how many more minutes I can shave off my time while still keeping a solid score. Eventually I should be limited by how fast I can type.

I believe one common mistake students make in studying for tests is they stop studying after they can get the correct answers once. I suspect my data will show that they will greatly benefit by continuing to practice until they can get the correct answers fast.

All Presidents Final Revisited

2006-08-18T10:56:00.000-04:00

Took the All Presidents Final Today

All 128 Questions
Percent Correct: 98%
Time: 14:34

I've shaved 2 minutes off my time in June, but have been confusing the portraits of Rutherford B. Hayes and Benjamin Harrison (they are both standing with a hand on a table which must be what my memory is triggering on).

Currently the Final Exam is not set to display all 128 questions at a time, only 20 questions. I figure nobody other than me really wants all 128 questions. In the future we will have a way to configure a test on the fly so you can display more questions if you want or even only fill in the blank questions - wouldn't that be fun!

Milestone 16

2006-08-02T18:26:00.000-04:00

I haven't been posting the milestones to the blog but this one was so cool I had to feature it here.

Over sixty-five improvements were made to StudyTag during this milestone including providing significantly enhanced navigation and sorting and searching for lessons and groups. Browse lessons and groups pages were added as the default landing pages and many additional features were implemented based upon requests from our members including paste all, remove all, identifying visually linked content, control of the test modes, expanded BBcode, staff favorites, popular lessons, two letter tags, expanded tag cloud, options for suppressing multiple choice questions, options for suppressing randomizing foil order, hot keys to start lessons, smiley faces, enabled number pads, and perhaps most importantly of all an ability to “watch this forum,” so authors are notified when students are posting to their forums.

Check out StudyTag on your summer vacation at StudyTag.com!

Vincent Van Gogh

2006-07-25T16:53:00.000-04:00

I took a lesson on Vincent Van Gogh today, where I currently have a silver trophy (I think I'll go back and make it gold).

The reading on Van Gogh says "He produced all of his work—some 900 paintings and 1100 drawings—during the ten year period before he committed suicide. Most of his best-known work was produced in the final two years of his life. In the two months before his death he painted 90 pictures." He lived only 37 years. I say only because I've lived a bit longer.

Hmm. What have I accomplished lately? Well, I did take that lesson on Van Gogh. What have you accomplished lately?

StudyTag Grammar

2006-07-09T07:01:00.000-04:00

The StudyTag system can be used to creat question sets for a variety of differing topics, including grammar. We anticipate StudyTag being exceptional at teaching parts of speech, sentence structure, and syntax.

I already anticipate that after the first few initial question sets are authored we may be requested to create secialized question editors to facilitate the authoring of examples for students. We look forward to receiving those suggestions and requests from some of our early pilot authors, parents, students, and teachers.

So, what do you think some grammar units might look like?

Classic T.V. Lines

2006-06-30T15:40:00.000-04:00

A fun new lesson on classic T.V. lines was added to the Just for Fun group. Check it out.

For those of you authoring lessons it also is an example of the following control characters in the "more options" section of the lesson editor:

[NoneOfTheAbove=off] <-- Don't display "None of the Above" questions.
[Introduction=off] <-- Don't display the "Introduction" mode button.
[Tutor=off] <-- Don't display the "Tutor" mode button.

Also it uses the 'autoplay' option for audio when added to a fact:

[audio=784 autoplay] <-- Play the audio automatically when a fact or question is displayed.

Currently we use control codes to set these advanced features. Eventually, we will get around to putting it all in a GUI. In the meantime, say hello to Marsha, Arnold and the Skipper for me in the classic T.V. lines quiz! How well do you know your TV?

All Presidents Final Exam

2006-06-28T16:22:00.000-04:00

I finally scored 100% on the all US Presidents Final Exam. Currently the exam is set to display all 128 questions and it took me 16 minutes and 51 seconds to complete. It has been a great deal of fun using StudyTag to slowly slog my way through all this memory work. I was finally motivated to learn my weaker presidents (17-31) by the cool new trophies that display in the trophy room. I even have an Ultimate Carlos trophy in Presidents 9 to 12. I expect that as I learn the Presidents ever better I could shave a few minutes off the time to do all 128 questions. Perhaps I try again in a month or two and report the results.

I have noticed that my knowledge of the Presidents and their terms in office is having a positive benefit on helping me remember other facts about US history. I'll talk about that more in the future including providing specific examples. Of course if you know Lincoln started in 1861 and Johnson in 1865, and you know the Civil War lasted Lincoln's presidency ,then you know the bounding years of the war!

The Year MCMXCIX

2006-06-25T15:54:00.000-04:00

Do you know how to translate MCMXCIX to a decimal number. Visit the StudyTag group Roman Numerals and you will find three lessons that will give you the skills to translate this yourself. Learn how to read the copyright on movies. Think of how valuable the skill will be in your next job!

O.K., perhaps there isn't a good reason to learn Roman Numerals except for fun. Can you get an "Ultimate Carlos" in Introduction to Roman Numerals. Make sure you take the Introduction Mode because the readings in this lesson are really valuable.

June 25, MMVI

States and Capitals

2006-05-03T08:18:00.000-04:00

We have been very busy with feedback from our early alpha testers. We literally have 100's of suggestions that we are sorting through for our summer push to get a fully function Beta version of StudyTag ready for fall. Needless to say we are very excited about the progress we are seeing and the suggestions we are receiving. Thanks for all the suggestions!

We anticipate hiring one or two summer interns to help with content editing and creation. Although the long term vision for StudyTag is community developed content we know that we need to do our share of seeding the community with enough interesting content ourselves. Look for losts of lessons this summer on Geography? Do you know your States and Capitals? If not you will after you start learning them on StudyTag today.

Look for lessons coming soon on Canada Provinces and Capitals, and Countries of the World.

No Child Left Behind

2006-04-18T16:02:00.000-04:00

In the United States public schools are suppose to meet requirements under an act called "No Child Left Behind." I'm not sure the Act is a good one, but I do like the name.

I wonder how many children in the world are being left behind? No child should be left behind. Every child in every country, town, and village should have an opportunity to learn. Now that is a vision that excites me. If StudyTag can help achieve that vision I would be delighted! My staff is too small at the moment, but I' do hope in the future to create a free version of StudyTag that is truly international, supporting every language and every child.

No child left behind.

7 Days?

2006-03-30T12:24:00.000-05:00

It is our goal to have the rewrite of the units section, now called lessons, and beready for our alpha testers in the next 7 days. This is the last major change we are making from early user feedback before we intend to go live in May. April will be spent working with alpha user feedback in order to update the milestone plan for the summer and fall. Now is a great time to submit those features you want for the next school year.

Example from George Washington True Patriot

2006-03-08T17:47:00.000-05:00

I've created two example lessons for my previous post in StudyTag. If you visit the George Washington group you can see these examples and see how StudyTag presents the questions for the facts in the first chapter of the George Washington: True Patriot by Janet and Geoff Benge.

I named the first lesson after the first chapter name, The Enemy. This can be done for each chapter in the book, creating a unique lesson with the appropriate questions.

If students did this exercise as they read each book in the Benge's collection, they will have learned well over 3000 interesting facts about history!

George Washington and StudyTag History Facts

2006-03-07T14:24:00.000-05:00

To provide you with a feel of one way to use StudyTag with your students let me describe how you might approach the book George Washington: True Patriot.

The first step is to begin reading the first chapter, "The Enemy." Even though this chapter is small at only three pages it is packed full of interesting facts. After reading the chapter the student or group of students should discuss what in the chapter do they think is worth remembering? They can highlight intersting sentences in the chapter or record their ideas on paper. Here are a few ideas from that chapter that I have recorded:

George Washington was born in Virginia.
George Washington was born Feb 22, 1732.
There were thirteen American colonies in 1775.
George Washington's plantation in Virgina was called Mount Vernon.
George Washington was born a British subject.
George Washington commanded the Continental army in 1775.

There are many other facts students may also find worth remembering in that chapter. Once they have an idea of what they might be they can launch StudyTag and record the fact they want to remember.

In the above example here is what I would select as a variable in each fact:

George Washington was born in [var]Virginia[/var].
George Washington was born Feb 22, [var]1732[/var].
There were thirteen American colonies in [var]1775[/var].
George Washington's plantation in Virgina was called [var]Mount Vernon[/var].
George Washington was born a [var]British[/var] subject.
George Washington commanded the [var]Continental[/var] army in 1775.

Enter these into StudyTag, add a few foils, and quickly learn these facts forever! It really is that simple. And, if the students write their own facts, it will be a lot better learning experience than if you write the facts for them.

StudyTag History

2006-03-01T15:54:00.000-05:00

Students have a powerful opportunity to learn and explore history through the use of biographies, original source documents, and other non-textbook based materials. Biographies, so much more powerful than textbooks, allow us to immerse ourselves in people's life stories, in their times, and in their actions.

YWAM Publishing has created several biography series that can be used in a history curriculum. The YWAM History Biographies, written exclusively by Goeff and Janet Benge, provide readers with a unique opportunity to explore history through the lives of individuals that have impacted the world. The Christian Heroes series described people who have chosen a path of service to others. Their lives serve as shining examples that success in life is not be measured in dollars and cents, but in service and with compassion for others.

YWAM Publishing's Heroes of History biography covers people's lives that were not necessarily Christian (and hence can be used in a Public School). Although some, like George Washington Carver, are excellent examples of Christian character serving the world through education and Science, others, like Christopher Columbus, demonstrate the conflicts that arise when cultures conflict. In all cases, Heroes of History tells powerful stories of men and women who directly impacted their world and forever changed ours.

The only weakness of biographies is that sometimes the stories are so moving and compelling we miss learning the important facts and details that should become part of our long term knowledge. These facts and details serve as hooks within our brains to hang and place information and to understand the narrative flow of historical events; facts such as when did the Revolutionary War actually begin and end? What role did George Washington play? When was George Washington elected President of the United States? StudyTag was created to provide students and parents a simple tool to collect important facts they want to learn. Once collected, StudyTag ensures the students actually master the information.

A student taking a simple test or quiz that shows they know the year George Washington was elected President today, does not at all guarantee they will remember that key historical fact tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year.

StudyTag ensures the students really learn the important information over the long term.

If a student identifies and records just ten important historical facts for each book in the YWAM Heroes series, by the time they finished all of the books in the series they will have recorded over 500 important historical facts.

StudyTag ensures the students really have mastered the facts by continually refreshing and reinforcing them in timed tutorial sessions that require only Five Minutes A Day (5MAD).

The computer can accomplish what is difficult or impossible to the teacher. The computer can know precisely what facts each student has been exposed to, how many times the fact has been reinforced, how many times the student has demonstrated a knowledge of the fact, and for how long they have been able to demonstrate that knowledge. The computer can know exactly which of the 500 facts should be reinforced with each individual student for five minutes, each and every day.

If the teacher and students identify ten important facts in each biography they read, the StudyTag tutorial will ensure the student remembers these facts for a lifetime.

StudyTag is a tool so powerful for teaching and reinforcing facts that there is no reason to stop with History.

StudyTag was designed to serve as a fact and companion guide for any book and for any subject. Teachers and students can add additional units to study and reinforce on any subject, student are only limited by their imagination and their desire to learn.

Students can even identify information they wish to learn only for the short term. StudyTag tutors and drills the student in that information only as long as the student desires, and will not include that information in long term refresher sessions. StudyTag works to make the learning of long term facts both fun and painless. It provides parents and teachers with detailed reports about what the student has learned, and it removes the guesswork out of trying to understand what a student needs reinforced.

Spell Checking in StudyTag

2006-02-10T12:10:00.000-05:00

I've recently been asked when are we going to add a spell checker into StudyTag. The answer is not anytime soon. We don't want to recreate what we can easily mash. If you don't know that I mean by that I'll explain. Here at StudyTag HQ we already have a spell checker, compliments of Google. Google has build a great spell checker that checks the spelling in any form in any web-page. It is really all that you need for editing content in StudyTag! An all you have to do to get this spell checker is install the very cool Google toolbar.

So, do you need a spell checker? Go to Google and download their toolbar today! Now I need to use Google to check this post.

Spelling Memory Tricks

2006-02-08T08:51:00.000-05:00

Do you have a great set of spelling tricks? Consider adding a spelling memory tricks lesson to StudyTag. Here is one I heard recently, if you trying to remember how to spell cemetery think of three tombstones all the same and lined up in a row. Remember that the tombstones are the same as the vowels, and the vowels are all the same! Never be tempted to spell 'cemetary' again!

I really need someone to write a lesson on spelling memory tricks!

Which Words?

2006-02-07T06:21:00.000-05:00

When creating a spelling unit several questions come to mind such as "Which words should we pick for spelling tests?" It turns out, this is not that difficult of a question. With modern computers we can analyze newspapers and books and quickly learn exactly which words are in common use.

Here are some words everyone should know how to spell, consider making them your first and second spelling tests:

a, and, are, as, at, be, for, from, have, he, his, I, in, is, it, of, on, that, the, they, this, to, was, with, you

Why should you know how to spell these words? Well, because they make up 25% of all written material!!! Learn how to spell another 75 words and you will know how to spell 50% of all written material. Seems like a safe place to start.

Spelling Tests and Long Term Memory

2006-02-06T09:08:00.000-05:00

When I attended public school we had weekly spelling tests. Every Monday the words were handed out to study for the week and on Friday we were tested on what we had learned. I would bring my list of 20 words home each week, review them with my mother, and typically got an A on the Friday test. I got A's in spelling. This is very amusing if you actually knew my spelling ability. You see, even back in elementary school whenever I had to write a paper in class I always had tons of spelling errors. Why? Because moving something into short term memory is very different from moving it into long term memory. We only ever studied the difficult words for a week at a time! Not enough!

Using StudyTag it is simple to keep reviewing facts with students over the long term. StudyTag makes it easy for students to master the most important facts by moving them into long term memory. StudyTag does this by encouraging short, dedicated but focused study on a set of facts. And, StudyTag makes it easy to accumulate a large set of related facts (such as spelling) into one large review lesson. StudyTag then comes back to review all facts to make sure the spelling (or whatever is being learned) is reaching long term memory.

In case you haven't noticed, we have recently added sound to StudyTag. It is now possible in a content editor to add sounds to a fact. Your student can build their own customized weekly spelling lesson directly into StudyTag! We suggest keeping focused on adding 20 words a week. As they finish each week copy the words into a final exam test and continue to study that lesson as well, long term memory and great spelling is on the way!

Dedicated Server!!!

2006-02-02T12:39:00.001-05:00

Hello,

If you haven't been on StudyTag lately then you are in for a few changes.

1. We've moved to a dedicated host. So faster performance times are readily apparent.
2. We've added user profiles and user trophies.
3. We are in the process of updating groups and lesson tags. Soon you will be able to search all public groups to learn what is available for free!!!

I'd suggest alpha authors update their user profiles, and sit back and have some fun. What trophies have you earned?

-Tom

Automated Tracking

2006-01-25T18:10:00.000-05:00

Tracking progress automatically and individually is no problem for StudyTag. Even though we are early in development it is already exciting to see how StudyTag is endlessly patient with me on the facts I tended to forget (such as who was the 13th President of the United States).

In order to create a custom learn experience for members StudyTage remembers how many times each member is asked each question, how many times they got the answer right, and what is the learning trend. The goal if for StudyTag to focus the students' energy on learning the things they really didn’t know rather than endlessly reviewing the facts they do know.

Oh, and the fun part is. You get a trophy to show off what you have learned!

Non-judgmental Learning

2006-01-15T23:02:00.000-05:00

StudyTag helps us learn the facts we want to know, quizzes us on these facts, and learns how well we know them. In doing this StudyTag is non-judgmental. It doesn't care if the student doesn't initially know the facts they want to learn. It doesn't care if it takes the student 1 exposure to the material or 100. The system doesn't judge the student. Rather StudyTag simply tracks progress and displays tangible evidence of achievements made.

I say this for parents and teachers so don't judge the students either. As long as the student is spending the few minutes a day StudyTag requires for memory work please try not to judge the student. Some students will learn the facts really fast, and others really slow. The beauty of StudyTag is that each student can learn at a pace that is appropriate for them. As long as they are putting in the time don't judge, simply encourage!

Pre-Alpha Hosted

2006-01-03T14:29:00.000-05:00

Our pre-alpha release is live. There are still multiple features to add before we complete the alpha release, but they should be complete this January and we wanted to start getting feedback from friends and family now. If you are part of this pre-alpha party then send me a note and I'll invite you to the Public Content group where you can see some of the examples I'll be talking about in these entries.

The best way to being is to take a lesson and create a lesson, or at least author a few facts. I'll describe a few features about the question editor.

We don't actually write questions in StudyTag, rather we write simple statements of facts that StudyTag can automatically turn into multiple different question types (True/False, Multiple Choice, Fill In the Blank). So, in StudyTag, write facts not questions. For example:

"George Washington was born in the colony of Virginia."

Is a simple statement of fact. To use StudyTag's automated generate a question capability carefully select the text Virginia with the following tags '[var]Virginia[/var]' Virginia is now marked as the variable in this question.

Based on the text selected as a variable, you next need to select foils. Foils is text that we replace your variable with to create a False statement. Foils for the above statement may be:

Maryland, New York, North Carolina

Write them in the foils section separated by a comma. Lastly you can add additional acceptable answers.

Acceptable Answers are other answers that we will also accept. If you had a statement of fact that "In 1775 there were thirteen American colonies" and "thirteen" was the variable and acceptable answer would be "13". If you had a statement "John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States" and "John Quincy Adams" was the variable and acceptable answer may be "John Adams", "John Q. Adams", and "John Q Adams".

Currently in StudyTag, if you spell an answer wrong, your answer is wrong. We could change that, but should we?

First 16 Presidents

2005-12-17T10:04:00.000-05:00

I've been using StudyTag to learn the first 16 Presidents of the United State and when they were in office. Already I can see the benefits in how I think about and remember history from that period of time. I definately have reinforced in myself the fundamental idea that in order to think you first need some facts and data to think about. Now ask me questions about the American Civil war and I've already come up with some interesting ideas of factors that may have contributed to its outbreak. Nothing earth shaking mind you, but something I never would have noticed if I hadn't memorized the American Presidents and their years in office. Why don't you try learning the American Presidents and see what new ideas you think of once you have something to think about?

Along the way to studying the presidents I learned this interesting bit of presidential trivia I just had to share:

John Tyler, 10th President of the United States
Tyler was the father of 15 children, more than any other President before or after him. His youngest child, Pearl, died 100 years, 1 week, and 6 days after the death of his eldest daughter, Mary.

Imagine that, the 11th President of the United States, who took office in 1841, had a daughter who live until 1947!

More Presidents

2005-12-02T11:07:00.000-05:00

All 43 of the American Presidents have been added as lessons to StudyTag. In the process we have discovered a few guideline we think may hold up for the long term.

1. Keep the number of facts in a lesson between 8 to 12.

2. A daily review for a lesson should take less than 1 minute.

3. Have each lesson list every other lesson in the set on its start and end screen. For example there are 11 lessons in the set of lessons on US presidents. On each start and end page we list all of the other 10 lessons so members can easily find them. We also list a single group where all of the lessons have been added.

Over time I expect we will refine these ideas further.

Why Memorize

2005-11-11T07:38:00.000-05:00

Many educators back away from having students do memory work and focus instead on helping students think. I, of course, and a strong supporter of helping students think and I understand why so many teachers don't like doing memory work - it is really really hard to do memory work with 40 students without a system like StudyTag!

Here is what I propose. For 5 minutes a day or less have your students do memory work on your given subject using StudyTag. If you have the students for an hour use the remaining time helping teach them how to think. Not only will the students remember more about what you are teaching, I think you will find they are better thinkers too. You can't think very interesting or creative ideas without fist having something to think about!

American Presidents

2005-11-04T17:29:00.000-05:00

The first subject we are doing content development for in our pilot project is History. One reason we are focusing on History is that Americans are notoriously bad in being able to place the American Civil War in the correct century. Another reason is that I find it fun to write history questions. I have to admit that I do not know all of the American Presidents and when they were in office. However, as I study more and more about how we learn and remember I am becoming convinced that as an American learning the names and dates of the American Presidents would be really quite valuable.

The reason I believe that memorizing the American Presidents will become valuable is that I believe it will provide an excellent framework for remembering other facts about history. Also, when I hear of an event I will be able to associate it with a President and understand where it fits into the American History time line. I am authoring the lesson and will test it out. Over the coming year I'll let you know how it is going and if I still think it is worth really learning about the American Presidents. Of course, if you live in the UK you may want to write your own lessons on Kings.

StudyTag Answers

2005-10-25T13:01:00.000-04:00

There is hope for educational software. That hope entails using technology for what it is really amazingly good at, that is:

1. Its ability to remember massive amounts of minute detail about massive numbers of students.
2. Its ability to be endlessly patient.
3. Its ability to customize a unique experience for each individual student.

StudyTag is focused on leveraging these abilities in a manner that engages and educates the students without needlessly boring them.

It is possible for StudyTag to quickly test each individual students knowledge about a subject and then provide a customized review plan to fill in the gaps of that students knowledge. However, for this to work teachers must first answer the question "What should the student actually know to have mastered this material?" and "How much of this material should the student really remember for the rest of their life?"

If a history teacher is convinced that it is valuable for a student to know the names of each American President and their time in office, then that can be entered into the StudyTag system and each student can learn those facts at a comfortable pace for them. In fact, that Group has already been entered into StudyTag, so all the teacher has to do is assign the lessons to the students and StudyTag does the rest.

Computers can have endless patience in helping each individual student learn the next President. Computers don't get impatient. Computers have no need to move on to the next topic. Time to leverage that ability. Time to start using StudyTag. Do you know the American Presidents?

Programming the Brain II

2005-10-24T10:17:00.000-04:00

So why are our current education techniques so incredibly inefficient? Why do we spend 50 minutes to an hour in math class, five days a week, for 12 years of school and still graduate people who can't do algebra.

The reason is really quite simple. Every brain is different. Every brain learns at its own pace. Every brain is not ready to learn what is currently being presented in class. And, as a result, most of the class time, and most of the homework time, is wasted.

If I am trying to teach the brain 600 concepts, and if I may need to reinforce the information 120,000 times to get those concepts, what do you think the odds are that in any given class there is even 1 student is a good position to learn the material the instructor is presenting today.

To make it even worst - the brain leaks! Information it knew yesterday it may not be able to recall today. Old information needs to be continually reinforced. But which old information? Each brain is not leaking the same things, and what needs to be reinforced for one student may not need to be reinforced for the next.

Do you see the magnitude of the problem.

I submit, there is a great way to address it. That way, I'll cover in my next post, but if you haven't already guessed it involves StudyTag.

Programming the Brain I

2005-10-21T10:15:00.000-04:00

In addition to being a teacher I am also a computer engineer. In fact, I've been creating software products and companies for over 25 years and I'm here to let you in on a little secret, its not all that difficult. In fact, teaching a computer to do advanced mathematics is trivial compared to teaching a person.

So, after all these years of education you would think we would have a complete set of proven methods fully in place to get everyone fully up to speed on what they need to know. I propose that almost every graduate from High School should be able to do advanced calculus. They have certainly spend enought time in school to have mastered advanced calculus by the time they graduate. The reason most don't know calculus has nothing to do with their intelligence, it has everything to do with their education.

You see you don't program a human brain the same way you do a computer. With a computer you set down step by step instructions and the computer simply follows those instructions perfectly (yes I mean perfectly, those bugs are almost always an error in the instructions not an error in the computer).

A human is different. Human intelligence is based not on following step by step instructions, rather it is based on pattern matching. Do you want to make the human smarter, expose the human brain to more information and let the brain do what it does naturally.

Do you want to make the human brain better at mathematics, expose the brain to more and more math patterns before trying to explain all of the steps. The brain uses the patterns to understand the steps, not the other way around.

Now, here is the amazing thing. If you wanted everyone who graduated from High School to be very good at math, how many minutes a day do you think they should drill starting in first grade. Have you guessed it? Did you guess 5 minutes?

Recently I posted the following, 10 reinforcements a minute x 5 minutes a day x 200 days per year x 12 years = 120,000 reinforcements

Over a 12 year school period I can reinforce 120,000 pieces of information in five minutes a day. I can teach even the most stubborn brain 600 key concepts in that time. We can teach that brain calculus, and make it really good at it!

Of course, currently our educational system does not do this. But it can.

StudyTag Key Concepts

2005-10-07T10:16:00.000-04:00

StudyTag is based on some key concepts. The first is simple, we believe it is possible in just five minutes a day (5MAD) to significantly augment and supplement a student's education on any topic.

We have created StudyTag:

So parents may fully understand and track their children's progress.
So students may quickly and effectively master important facts.
So teachers may live up to the promise of no child left behind.

StudtyTag believes it is possible to create a learning system that tutors, tracks, and educates without grades, judgment, and fear. We also believe it is time to change the focus away from grades and back to mastery.

The secret to our success in contained in the following three equations:

1. 10 reinforcements a minute x 5 minutes a day x 200 days per year x 12 years = 120,000 reinforcements

2. 120,000 reinforcements / 200 reinforcements per concepts = 600 concepts

3. 600 concepts = mastery

I'll expand further on these equations to see how they are central to education, yet simple to implement.

The Origins of StudyTag

2005-10-01T16:27:00.000-04:00

StudyTag developed out of a practical need. For health reasons my wife and I found ourselves home schooling our twelve year old daughter and as a part of our home school curriculum my daughter and I were reading a series of books and biographies on US history. For each chapter we read we would both write a series of facts we thought we should know after reading that chapter. She would quiz me on her facts and I would quiz her on mine. It was always interesting to see what the other thought was a fact worthy of remembering. After a while we had developed quite a large collection of facts and it became a bit of a problem reviewing old material, it was also taking too much time.

Being a Computer Engineer I thought it would be great to have a computer system where both my daughter and I could write and share the facts we had learned.

I didn’t find anything already out there that did what I wanted it to do at a price I as a parent wanted to pay - free being the preferred price. Since I couldn't find it, I decided to build it. Welcome to StudyTag.