Card in Hand

  1. Introduction
  2. The Leitner CardFile System
  3. The Card in Hand Handheld Application
    1. What is a Deck?
    2. Installation
    3. Registering
    4. Making a New Deck
    5. Editing a Deck
    6. Reviewing the Deck
  4. The Card in Hand Import/Export Desktop Utility
    1. Overview
    2. Installation
    3. Editing Decks
      1. Adding Cards
      2. Editing Cards
      3. Deleting Cards
      4. Categories
        1. Adding Categories
        2. Modifying Categories
    4. Importing
      1. Importing CSV & TSV from a Spreadsheet
    5. Exporting
    6. Backing up Decks
      1. On Macs
      2. On Windows
  5. Glossary
  6. Upgrading from FlashCards

Introduction

The Card in Hand  is a cleanly designed flash card application. It automates the flash card learning process and streamlines creation and editing of flash cards on the handheld with stylus, handheld keyboard, as well as on the desktop. To speed the learning process Card in Hand tracks which flash cards should be studied for you.

Card in Hand is based upon the Leitner Cardfile system. The Leitner Cardfile system was concieved by the German psychologist Sebastian Leitner in the 1970s as a way to automate an automatic selective learning process. The basis of the Leitner Cardfile system is that flash cards you learn are successively culled from the deck of flash cards as one studies them. This ensures that the studier is selectively learning from their deck of flash cards; they are only studying flash cards that they do not remember.

The Leitner CardFile System

Leitner's basic setup is fairly simple: categorize flash cards based upon how many times they've been answered correctly. First, set aside a number of bins and labelled from zero on up. Put all of the flash cards into the bin labelled as the zero bin. Take all of the cards from a bin, and review them. For each flash card, if it is recognized put it into the next highest bin and if not, put into the zero level bin. At the end of a review session all of the flash cards that are not remembered end up in the level 0 bin, and the rest end up in a higher numbered bin.

This heuristic, of putting familiar cards into the next highest bin and those forgotten into the lowest level bin, serves to automatically separate the flash cards by whether they are known or not. The best known flash cards (recalled correctly several times in a row) are in the highest level bin, while the oft forgotten end up in the level 0 bin. By reviewing flash cards in the lowest level bin, one studies the flash cards that are the least well known - the ones that need to be reviewed the most.

If one only studies the flash cards in the lowest bin leads one to wonder when they should review flash cards in the higher level decks. This leads us to additional intricacies: scheduling a review for cards in the higher level bins.

We facilitate learning via a number of methods, but the key is repetition. Psychologists have found that within only a few days of learning a fact we forget it; that we often forget in a inverse logarithmic manner. By reviewing a fact repeatedly we can make this 'forgetting curve' less and less steep. The best space of time between reviewing a particular fact, also known as spaced repetition,  is highly dependent on the sort of facts we are studying, as well as the student's own learning characteristics. Wait too long to review a facts and they are forgotten, a situation which is referred characterized as a high 'recall failure' rate. Don't wait to re-review facts and then the review will not improve the 'forgetting curve' appreciably. There is no universal time table for reviewing cards, but in general as a flash card rises through the numbered bins it needs to be reviewed less often.

To improve the Leitner Cardfile system each flash card could be assigned a time to be reviewed again. The flash card could then be included in subsequent review sessions, based upon the time it should be reviewed next. Although this system would help to minimize the reviewers 'recall failure' rate, it is quite cumbersome to perform by hand. However, this kind of book-keeping is very easy and quick for a computer. The Card in Hand handheld application performs all of this mundane book-keeping for you.
Leitner bins at start of a new study session.
At the very beginning all cards in the lowest # bin.
After the first review, several cards have moved into the level 1 bin.
After the first review session...

After reviewing the level 1bin, all cards that were not recalled go back into the level 0 bin, and all those remembered go to the level 2 bin.
If the flash cards in bin 1 are reviewed all of the cards recalled go into bin 2.



Card in Hand automatically tracks all of the Leitner Cardfile system's details for you. It tracks which bin each flash card is in, and automatically handles any scheduling details for each card. You benefit in that you selectively learn the flash cards that you do not know, or need to re-review - all without having to track the details for each of these flash cards yourself. Card in Hand provides you with a summary for each deck of flash cards displaying your progress in learning the deck, how many cards need to be reviewed and when more cards will need to be reviewed.

The Card in Hand Handheld Application

What is a Deck?

A deck is a grouping of cards, as you would expect. But, the Card in Hand program does not force you to use the standard Question/Answer format for studying flash cards. You can have as many categories for your flash cards as you want. If you are used to studying using the Category Method, organizing information into several categories, you can use Card in Hand to do this as well.

But what is a card? A card is a piece of information which contains two or more distinct categories of information. For instance, if you are studying Spanish you could create two categories: an English category, and a Spanish category. But, you are not limited to just two categories. If you are studying information about the States of the United States you may want to know: the states name, its State Flower, its nickname,  or its population. With Card in Hand you can do this by simply creating categories for each type of information you want to know, and then select which ones you want to focus your review sessions on.

Installation

To install, copy all PDB and PRC files onto your palm pilot via your HotSync manager.

Note to PalmOS 3 & 4 users: Do NOT install SuperWaba.PRC and SWNatives.PRC. Instead, install the SuperWaba.PRC and SWNatives.PRC located in the palmos3and4 folder.

Registering

To register your application tap on the 'Register' button at the bottom of the screen. A dialog will appear that accepts the registration key for the application.
To register access the register item under the 'file' menu item.

Making a New Deck

  1. From the Deck List screen, tap on the button labelled 'New' at the bottom right corner of the screen.
  2. Type in a name for the new deck in the dialog that appears.
  3. The screen will change to the Deck Details screen, where new cards can be added to the deck.

Editing a Deck

  1. From the Deck Details screen, tap on one of the cards listed in the table.
  2. Tap on the Menu icon and choose the 'Card' menu, and then the 'Edit' sub-menu. The screen will change to the Card Details screen and all of the categories in the table will be prefilled in with the values of the card.
  3. To edit values tap on a category listed in the table. The text field at the top of the screen will be updated to the value of the category. Change the text appropriately and write an ENTER key, or tap the button labelled 'Add' to the right of the text field.
  4. When finished changing the values of the card, tap the button labelled 'Save' at the bottom of the screen. If you do not wish to save the changes, tap the button labelled 'Cancel' at the bottom of the screen.

Reviewing the Deck

There are two ways to review a deck. One may review the deck as a Flash Card Review Session, or as a Multiple Choice Review Session.
  1. From the Deck List screen, tap on a deck listed in the table: this will bring you to the Deck Details screen.
  2. Make any changes to the quiz settings if you need to.
  3. Tap on the 'Flash' button at the bottom of the screen to review as a  Flash Card Review Session, or tap on the 'Multi' button to review as a Multiple Choice Review Session.

The Card in Hand Import/Export Desktop Utility

Overview

The Import/Export Desktop Utility allows you to create/edit your decks, import decks from third party flash card vendors such as StudyStack and The FlashCard Exchange, and export your decks. It works on all desktop platforms supported by Java.

Installation

  1. You must have at least version 1.3 of Java installed on your computer. If you aren't sure if you have the latest version you can visit http://www.java.com to find out.
    • If you are installing this program from Linux, you may need manually locate your Java installation files. If your browser asks you which file to open the link in the next step with, find the 'javaws' program included in the 'bin' folder of your Java installation. It will be able to open the link provided below.
  2. Click on this link to install the application.
  3. You will be asked if you want to install shortcuts for the application, as shown in the screenshot to the right. Click on Yes! This will allow you to find the application easily on your computer. If you click on 'No' then you will only be able to access the program through the Java WebStart application, which is often difficult to find.
Installing the desktop application.
When asked to create links for the application, say yes.

Editing Decks

Importing

Four types of files can be opened by the desktop utility.
  • CSV & TSV: CSV (Comma Separated Values) and TSV (Tab Separated Values) are a simple formatted text file that all modern spreadsheet applications support. The FlashCardExchange can export decks in TSV format; however only full members can download other user's decks. You can download any decks that you create on their website without paying the membership fees.
  • XFC (StudyStack Data File): The free website Study Stack offers a wide variety of flash cards to study cards online through a web page, which you can also download for free.
  • PDB (Palm Database): You can open any deck created on your handheld.

The File menu.
You can import files via the 'Open' command...
There are four types of files you can open.
Pick the type of file to open in the 'Files of type'  pulldown in the open dialog.
Importing CSV & TSV from a Spreadsheet

Several steps may be involved creating a spreadsheet, enumerated below:
  1. Create a new spreadsheet document.
  2. The first row should contain the names of the categories that the deck you want to create will have. In the illustration to the right a deck with two categories is being created: one called English, and a second one called Spanish. You must have at least two categories in your deck.
  3. Each subsequent row in the spreadsheet represents a flash card. Create as many rows as you want,
  4. Export the spreadsheet as a CSV or TSV file. There are several tips that may help you with this process:
    • Some spreadsheets will export strings with single or double quotes around them, which you may not want (all of your flash cards will be quoted). You can disable this by specifying no quotes around strings during the export process.
    • If any of your flash cards have commas in them, use the TSV format. If your flash cards contain tabs and commas, consider replacing the tabs with another character.
    • Make sure that when you export your document that it has the correct letters appended to the file name. If you create a file with commas separating the values of the commas, the file should end in '.csv'. If your exported file used tabs to separate values, the file should end in '.tsv'.
  5. If you get error messages importing your TSV or CSV file.
    • Open the file (it is just a text document, you can do this with any kind of text editor). Verify that if the file ends in '.csv' that commas are used to separate the values, or that if it ends in '.tsv' that tabs separate the values.
    • Make sure that all of the cells in your spreadsheet under the categories you created contain values! If they don't consider using some place filler, or setting exporting the file with single or double quotes around strings.

Creating a spreadsheet.
Creating flash cards in a spreadsheet...

Exporting

Once you are done importing and/or editing your deck with the desktop application, click on the 'File' menu item at the top of the window and select the 'Save As...' item in the drop down. You can save your deck as a Palm Database, or export it to CSV or TSV formatted data files.

Warning! Exporting your deck as a CSV or TSV formatted file does not include the Leitner data for your deck! It only contains the names of the categories and the values of the categories for each card. This will not be a problem for you unless you try to reimport the CSV or TSV file (all of the learning data, if any, will be lost).

Backing up Decks

Whenever you sync your handheld with your computer all of the files on your handheld are backed up to your computer, including your decks. Where the decks are backed up is highly dependent on the program you use to HotSync. If you use Palm's HotSync application, if you are using a Mac or Windows this is most likely the case, you can expect to find your files in a standard place.

On Macs
On a Mac you can find the backups of your handheld files in "Documents/Palm/Users/". There is a folder within it that is named based upon the account name you use on your handheld. For example, I have two different accounts I use on my handhelds, 'Test Account' and 'Dane Summers' and there there is a folder for each of the accounts in "Documents/Palm/Users/". One is called 'AccounT', the other 'SummerD'. The folder is named after the last name of the account, minus the last letter, with the first initial of the first name of the account appended to it.

You will find the decks within this folder, in the 'Backup' folder. All of your decks have 'STACK-' prepended to the name of the deck.

On Windows
On the Windows platform you can find the backups of your handheld files in "C:\Program Files\palmOne\". There is a folder within it that is named based upon the account name you use on your handheld. For example, I have two different accounts I use on my handhelds, 'Test Account' and 'Dane Summers' and there there is a folder for each of the accounts in "C:\Program Files\palmOne\". One is called 'AccounT', the other 'SummerD'. The folder is named after the last name of the account, minus the last letter, with the first initial of the first name of the account appended to it.

You will find the CardInHand decks within this folder, in the 'Backup' folder. All of your decks have 'STACK-' prepended to the name of the deck.

Upgrading from FlashCards

If you are upgrading from FlashCards to CardInHand for the first time you need to manually remove the old FlashCards application yourself, with care. If you use the standard 'Delete' in the Applications program on your Palm you could accidentally delete all of your decks too! Use a file utility like Filez to delete the program to ensure you only delete the program, not the data files.