Here are two programs that I have used in the past, since my son has fetal alcohol syndrome, and loves to sit in front of a computer. I use these programs to help him memorize various things. For instance, in the 4th grade, the students had to memorize all 50 states. In the 5th grade, they had to memorize the states and their capitols. So using the next two programs allowed me to help without having to deal with his limited attention span since he will sit in front of a game console or computer for an hour at a time before he realizes he is tired. The two programs have slightly different philosophies.

jMemorize can be found here. I keep adding new card sets using simple CSV files, and so it’s more general in that different types of information can be memorized.

jVLT, on the other hand, is for vocabulary, or single words that need to be memorized. Until I found jMemorize, I used jVLT in a weird way in order to get what I wanted. jVLT also accepts files as CSV so you can prepare the “vocabulary” in a simple text editor or spreadsheet of your choosing. Me, I use OpenOffice’s spreadsheet since I don’t want all the issues associated with Microsoft’s Office Suite. Since I use the database tools, I no longer can take a tax deduction for the cost of the Office Suite; I have migrated everything to first Star Office and now to OpenOffice.

Anyway, jVLT is somewhat limiting in the general sense since you have cast everything in terms of a vocabulary. but I still use it on occasion with my Sunday school classes. jVLT can be found here.

Both of these programs will be very useful for people who home school their children, or for parents who have children who are more used to sitting in front of a computer, learning. Since I am a single parent, I know how much time can be spent on helping our children to learn seemingly arcane facts and figures for little purpose. From experience, I can tell you that memorizing anything, from Pokemon and their evolved stages, to states, to simple words and spelling can be a great help in the development of a child.

Both programs are written in Java.

[tags]microface, Open Source, learning, flashcards, jMemorize, jVLT[/tags]