Monday, August 27, 2007

Study software

Study software

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Studying in an educational context refers to the process of gaining mastery of a certain area of information. Study software then is any program which allows a student to improve the time they spend thinking about, learning and studying that information.

More specifically study software's objective is to increase the effective application of efficacious study skills to that information, such that thinking and learning about that information is more productive per unit time.

Different subjects being studied may benefit from a different spread of study skills being applied. Mathematics requires a somewhat different set of study skills to the skill required to learn a language.

Some types of study software are subject specific teachers of material and may or may not contain the information/content that requires mastery.

Study software therefore is a blanket for a variety of overlapping software types.

Contents

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[edit] Origins

Education has of course been a road to a better life and so the drive for improvement has been universal from students. Students in most US institutions are not taught how to study/learn specifically. Yet there is now hard evidence for some methods for study/learning being superior to others, and that there is benefit in teaching 'study skills' themselves.

Study software to a degree, seeks to circumvent this problem, by causing the student to follow good practices, through the use of the software, without necessarily having to know about the background science of memory and learning.

Historically the most successful types of study software include Mindmapping and Flashcard software programs. Both independently have been proven to improve learning. Mapping software's claimed strengths are more at the thinking end of the spectrum of study and are criticized for their lack of efficacy once the benefits of organizing information are finished. Flashcard software's strengths are more at the learning end of the spectrum of study and are criticized as being for rote learning only.

A more recently arrived group is typified by the offering by software giant Microsoft, of MS One-Note and are best summarized as being predominantly for information gathering.

There are also hybrids of the above broad types available, including ones that can actually test students on their notes.

[edit] Benefits

Benefits that the various types of study software might confer include various mixtures of:-

1. Subject specific content built into the software which therefore bypasses the student need to make notes themselves, and may or may not also incorporate various other beneficial principles of learning including the above.

2. Efficient making and editing of notes - The simple steps that are required to get information into the program must be efficient, ideally support multiple shortcut keys OR be very tablet friendly with 'microsoft ink functionality' OR have an active speech recognition system or interface. This step is of course somewhat or completely bypassed if the program has inbuilt content.

3. Memory targeting notetaking style - Notes that are created should be of an intrinsically more memorable type than that which could be created without the student using software - typically this will include a visually stimulating diagrammatic, likely some variation of mind-mapping which may conform more or less closely to Tony Buzan's ideal. Tony Buzan himself has created a mindmapping program which follows his methods, however more popular mapping programs allow more than one word per branch of the diagram for student convenience and the information itself is placed also in the join points of the map.

4. Efficient import of information from a variety of sources - including images, sounds, webpage content or entire webpages and as many other filetypes as possible.

5. Tracking of knowledge through testing and review - From simple Q-A to MCQ to testing of mapping diagrams, there are a variety of presentations of this functionality with different pro's and con's. The more scientific confer the benefits of the 'spacing effect' to the student user.

6. Improvements in access to information required for learning - some programs are specifically designed to be used with databases of information which are subject specific.

[edit] Barriers

Barriers to the use of study software include:

1. Students require a computer, and internet access, ideally broadband, for optimal use of typical study software. Multiple studies show that access to these key elements is increasing impressively year by year, however this is still an issue in 2007.

2. Many students cannot type and so the time they spend putting information into the software can offset the potential benefits. Conversely typing tutors and speech recognition are both improving and each have their roles.

3. Lack of recognition of study as a skill - as a general rule, teachers do the work of making the learning of information more efficient for students, and spend rather less time teaching them how to gather and learn from raw information sources. Consequently students frequently don't recognize the efforts that the teacher has made in the background to convey understanding and this bypasses to a great degree, the student's need for study skills. When that student arrives at higher levels of education they semi randomly are or are not lucky enough to stumble across useful learning strategies relevant to their field of interest, or in the case of study software, the help.

4. Lack of consideration of software as an avenue for improving study efficiency. While many study skills may be added to a students repertoire without need for study software, some are done more efficiently with study software (e.g. editing of Mindmaps) OR cannot be done at all without the help of dedicated software (e.g. application of the spacing effect to improve learning efficiency).

5. Content based study software is often only relevant in a local sphere, as even in specific areas of learning, content taught varies considerably by geographic location.

[edit] Future

A number of converging trends make it extremely likely that study software will become ubiquitous within 10 years.

Supply of the enabling technologies will improve.

Trends include: Improvements in battery technology, head worn sound and visual displays, input devices, speech recognition, handwriting recognition will allow mobile computing to become the norm. There are no more 'basic breakthroughs' needed in any of these areas before wearable computers become a given in the near future. Broadband access, especially wireless will mean that the normal state of affairs for a student will be to be online at a moment's notice. Ultimately the computer will be a constantly worn companion for a typical student.

Demand for the service will increase.

With physical goods becoming cheaper, and less labor intensive, increasing emphasis on 'services' as a valuable labor commodity throughout the world will mean that higher and higher levels of education, with increased competition for places, will require improvements in learning efficiency that can only be brought about through the application of specialized study software to the problem.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Burdess, N. (1998). Handbook of student skills. (2nd ed.). Sydney: Prentice Hall
  • Farrand, P, Hussain, F, Hennessy, E (2002) The efficacy of the 'mind map' study technique. Medical Education. 36 (issue5) p426-
  • Glenberg A.M. (1977) Influences or the retrieval processes on the spacing effect in free recall. J. of Exp. Psychol. 3: 282-294
  • Hilliary F.G Et Al (2003) Spacing of Repetitions Improves Learning and Memory After Moderate and Severe TBI. J of Clin. and Exp. NeuroPsychol. 25(1): 49-58 (as above internet link)
  • Hintzman D.L. (1974) Theoretical implications of the spacing effect. In: Theories in cognitive psychology: The Loyola Symposium (Ed.R.L. Solso), p. 77-99
  • Toppino T.C, Kasserman J.E., Mracek W.A (1991) The effect of Spacing Repetitions on the Recognition Memory of Young Children and Adults. J. of Exp. Child Psychol. 51: 123-138
  • Withers, G. (1991). Tackling that test: Everything you wanted to know about taking tests and exams. Hawthorn, Vic.: Australian Council for Educational Research.
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