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Need practice on briefs or phrases you are trying to learn? Try digital flash cards!
Many of us have used flash cards to practice or learn material. You may even have done it in your theory or bridge class. I recently discovered the most helpful tool in learning briefs – sites where you can make your own digital flash cards!
Basically, you make cards with the English word or phrase on the front, and steno on the back (or any other way you want – more on making them later, it’s easy!) Then you start a session and try to write each card as it pops up! Apparently there are a few, but the one I have tried, which is amazing and has all the features (as well as a very responsive tech team who added a “Court Reporting” category when I requested it!) is
http://www.flashcardmachine.com/
What is so much better about this site than good old-fashioned flash cards or just writing lists of briefs, you ask?
1) You can share your cards with everyone and look at other cards people have made. We can all pool our collective resources. Oh, and it's free (and easy).
2) They have a plethora of options. The most helpful are the “random” and “auto-flip” options that are perfect for CR briefs practice. With random, you don’t know what word or phrase will pop at you next, and you have to react and write it. With auto-flip, you do nothing once it starts – you just keep your hands on your machine and write! You can even choose how fast the cards flip! If you are just starting, you might put it to four or five second intervals. Then as you get better at a group of cards, three then two, maybe even one second! It is good to write the word or phrase as many times as you possibly can before the next one comes up – more muscle memory.
3) You can leave the flash cards window over your realtime and you can see your realtime and the flash cards at the same time.
4) It is very, very easy to create the cards. You can either do it from scratch, which isn’t bad for small lists, or you can simply upload a text file as long as it is tabbed. I will explain this at bottom.
5) The flashcards are always available as long as you have internet. No carrying cards around or wasted effort. You get to keep your hands on your machine and write!
One more thing before I explain how to upload your files. I have been using this site for only a few days, but I have over 50 sets of cards uploaded (it’s that easy). Most sets have between 20-40 cards. Here is a link to my page. Feel free to study them to see what in the heck I am talking about and if you like the program. If you like any of my cards, feel free to study them and use the briefs! Otherwise, create your own and you have the perfect study aid to learn new strokes! Here’s the link –
http://www.flashcardmachine.com/p/2ox51u
Now, to upload. If you have any lists in Excel, as I do, it’s very easy. I have lists of briefs in Excel that have the English in the first column, and the steno in the second column. You have to highlight these and copy to a text file (notepad) to be able to upload to the site. Simply copy and paste into a text file. When you do this, the steno part will be tabbed over from the English because Excel has tabs already. Your text file you upload has to have tabs so that the site will know where the front of the card ends, and where the back of the card begins.
If you don’t have Excel, but you have a wordlist in Word or somewhere else, simply paste the English word into a text file, then hit the TAB key, then paste the steno. That’s how you manually create tabs – you just hit the TAB key. If you don’t want to upload lists or don’t have any, just use the editor on the site. You’ll just type on the front of the card and on the back, then save. Pretty simple, but it is faster to upload lists if you have them, rather than typing them again.
If anyone has any questions, feel free to respond here or email me at keithrowan1978@yahoo.com
Good luck!
Basically, you make cards with the English word or phrase on the front, and steno on the back (or any other way you want – more on making them later, it’s easy!) Then you start a session and try to write each card as it pops up! Apparently there are a few, but the one I have tried, which is amazing and has all the features (as well as a very responsive tech team who added a “Court Reporting” category when I requested it!) is
http://www.flashcardmachine.com/
What is so much better about this site than good old-fashioned flash cards or just writing lists of briefs, you ask?
1) You can share your cards with everyone and look at other cards people have made. We can all pool our collective resources. Oh, and it's free (and easy).
2) They have a plethora of options. The most helpful are the “random” and “auto-flip” options that are perfect for CR briefs practice. With random, you don’t know what word or phrase will pop at you next, and you have to react and write it. With auto-flip, you do nothing once it starts – you just keep your hands on your machine and write! You can even choose how fast the cards flip! If you are just starting, you might put it to four or five second intervals. Then as you get better at a group of cards, three then two, maybe even one second! It is good to write the word or phrase as many times as you possibly can before the next one comes up – more muscle memory.
3) You can leave the flash cards window over your realtime and you can see your realtime and the flash cards at the same time.
4) It is very, very easy to create the cards. You can either do it from scratch, which isn’t bad for small lists, or you can simply upload a text file as long as it is tabbed. I will explain this at bottom.
5) The flashcards are always available as long as you have internet. No carrying cards around or wasted effort. You get to keep your hands on your machine and write!
One more thing before I explain how to upload your files. I have been using this site for only a few days, but I have over 50 sets of cards uploaded (it’s that easy). Most sets have between 20-40 cards. Here is a link to my page. Feel free to study them to see what in the heck I am talking about and if you like the program. If you like any of my cards, feel free to study them and use the briefs! Otherwise, create your own and you have the perfect study aid to learn new strokes! Here’s the link –
http://www.flashcardmachine.com/p/2ox51u
Now, to upload. If you have any lists in Excel, as I do, it’s very easy. I have lists of briefs in Excel that have the English in the first column, and the steno in the second column. You have to highlight these and copy to a text file (notepad) to be able to upload to the site. Simply copy and paste into a text file. When you do this, the steno part will be tabbed over from the English because Excel has tabs already. Your text file you upload has to have tabs so that the site will know where the front of the card ends, and where the back of the card begins.
If you don’t have Excel, but you have a wordlist in Word or somewhere else, simply paste the English word into a text file, then hit the TAB key, then paste the steno. That’s how you manually create tabs – you just hit the TAB key. If you don’t want to upload lists or don’t have any, just use the editor on the site. You’ll just type on the front of the card and on the back, then save. Pretty simple, but it is faster to upload lists if you have them, rather than typing them again.
If anyone has any questions, feel free to respond here or email me at keithrowan1978@yahoo.com
Good luck!
Views: 421
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by tami carlson on
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Thank you, Keith. That site is amazing.
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Permalink Reply by LeAnne Law on
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Keith, that will be a great addition to use with Mark's brief videos.
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Permalink Reply by April McMillan, CRR, RPR, CSR on
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Thanks, Keith! That sure beats the pages and pages of new briefs I keep in front of my laptop :)
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Permalink Reply by Keith Rowan II on
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Wow, you guys are having the same awe-struck reactions as I did when I first found the site! We actually have Christine Sadorra to thank. I found it on her webpage -- http://stenonerd.blogspot.com/
It is a lovely page full of great stuff that you should definitely check out if you haven’t already!
I am shocked that I didn’t know about this site earlier and that the vast majority in reporting don’t seem to know about it. This site has been around since 2001 from what I read online. However, it was pretty recent that they added some of the features like auto-flip that make it so great for our practice.
The site is run entirely off donations. I have donated because I feel it is a huge help to me and will continue to be for a long time.
I mainly use it for warmup every day, before school or starting practice. It’s a very easy, efficient way to practice briefs! I always say the words as they come up, and if I have time, I even make up short sentences or phrases. When you have your own card sets, you can combine them and practice multiple sets in one session. -
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Permalink Reply by Alexis McCutchen on
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YOU ROCK!!! Thanks for sharing. Great tool for me, my college boys, and my 12-year-old.
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Thanks for the great info, Keith!! I actually found this site a few days ago but didn't know how to get my excel lists in there without retyping them. AWESOME!! Thanks a bunch!!
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Permalink Reply by Glen Warner on
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Keith --
Again, great find!
I've copied and pasted your post on ol' Cheap and Sleazy! This will probably help a *lot* of students!
I'll move it to the Links page later on, after my next archiving excursion ....
--gdw
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"For a Good (steno) Time ...."
http://www.cheapandsleazy.net -
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Permalink Reply by sonja m. reed on
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thank you for sharing this tip and site information. i'm going through your link and trying it tonight. thanks, again.
sonja -
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Keith, thanks a million for the information about this great learning tool!! It's exactly what I was looking for at this point in my studies.
Suzanne -
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Suzanne --
I had Keith rewrite his post and include some pictures for my (cheap and sleazy) website. You can see the results here:
http://www.cheapandsleazy.net/digi_flash.html
Enjoy! -
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Hi, Diana.
Keith's post was good, but you might enjoy the version with the pictures:
http://www.cheapandsleazy.net/digi_flash.html
Enjoy! -
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