Flash Cards: The Easy Way To Teach, Learn On A Mac.

As we get older, learning seems to get tougher. When we were children, how did we learn? Flash cards?

Remember those? Remarkably, flash cards still work, on children and adults. Flash cards also work on a Mac.

As a teacher, I’ve always been impressed with how easy it was to teach using tools on a Mac. No wonder there are more Macs in schools.

Mac applications for teachers include lesson plans and record tracking. Importantly, other applications can be used at a more basic level.

For example, take flash cards. They’re a time-honored and important way to learn; from kindergarten to high school and college. Flash cards are good for adults, too.

Mac360’s search team is given the assignment to find Mac applications which have value and are worthy of use; for ourselves, or our children, or in our jobs.

In the past we’ve reviewed a couple of applications from Custom Solutions of Maryland that are perfect for an education environment; child or adult.

Flash Cards is the newest Mac application in a stable of education tools and utilities that are perfectly priced for the teacher. Free.

In all the years I’ve been a teacher, there are only two issues I’ve ever had with Flash Cards.

One, making them myself has always, always, been a pain. It’s one thing to develop the material. It’s something else again to manufacture the cards.

Two, purchased flash card sets often have material that’s not quite suited to the topic at hand, and getting multiples to use in a large classroom can cost.

You’d think there was something in between that could take advantage of today’s technology, not take much time to develop, and would help to keep kids focused on the subject.

Enter Flash Cards, the creatively named application from Custom Solutions. This is a frighteningly easy way to managed flash cards on your Mac.

You start with two simple modes. Text and Pictures. The control panel lets you choose the mode, the on-screen time for each card (ranges from 1 second to 10 seconds), the amount of time between flashes.

Phrases, text mode, is about as simple and intuitive as you could imagine. Enter the flash phrase, then enter the corresponding answer. Add and delete phrases and answers as needed.

Support for importing photos as a flash card stack is a bit more cumbersome, though not difficult. All photos or images have to be .jpg’s, the answer is the name of the file, and they have to be dropped into a special folder.

Each flash card sequence can be tested via Stop and Start buttons, Auto and Manual buttons, and Next and Show Answer buttons. Even control font size and font color from the control panel.

It’s just not more complicated that that to create straightforward flash cards on any subject using the Mac.

No one can complain about the price-- suited for any school budget. Free. The only thing I’d like to see is drag and drop capability for photos and images (beyond just .jpg files).

What Mac applications are used in your school or your child’s school? Share your experience in the Comments section below.

Off Topic Note: Have you ever noticed how much Apple’s “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” television commercials remind you of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote? Seriously.