H-Cards are the way to go.....

Hypermedia cards are a great addition to any classroom. This week, as we covered multimedia, hypertext and hypermedia I sat up to take notice in the hypermedia cards or h-cards for short. In particular, I learned that these flash cards are set up on a web page, just like a regular flash card and can be flipped over by simply selecting the option to do so. Once the card has been flipped the answer is shown. This type of card will work in any classroom. Although there is not much difference from the traditional flashcard, this type of card is interactive by its very nature. As stated by Palombella & Johnson in their article titled The Design, Use and Evaluation of Hypermedia Flashcards as a teaching tool, "test scores, survey results and other student feedback show that h-cards are an effective study tool and fun to use, whether alone or as part of an active learning experience".

Also, this article pointed out a few advantages of the h-cards such as them being more reliable because they cannot be torn and they also create an excitement that is not found in the traditional cards. H-cards cannot be stained and they are easy to create. Considering that I will teach social studies and its various components, which tend to be boring to students, it is especially important that I allow students to use h-cards to reiterate the lesson and help them to remember key points. H-cards can have graphics added to further motivate students and can easily be used via a Cd-Rom. I especially like the fact that students that used the h-cards tend to score higher than those students not using the h-card as a study tool. Personally, I think h-cards are the way to go.

Palombella, A., & Johnson, D. (2005). The Design, Use and Evaluation of Hypermedia Flashcards as a Teaching Tool. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 49(2), 46-54. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.