高产出练习的应用程序、词汇管理和输入器

3.1.5 高产出练习的应用程序在哪里？

基于对专业知识、认知技能获取、记忆和教育心理学的研究，我在第三部分中认为，要发展自己，就必须定期进行生产性实践。阅读，以及重读到暂时理解复杂信息的程度，通常不足以保证长久的理解。通常情况下，一个人应该练习使用、探索、82和利用信息。因此，当一个人处理信息时，他将确定信息的哪一部分，如果有的话，他希望掌握。除了标记信息之外，用户应该能够很容易地将知识宝石添加到一个应用程序中，然后用它来训练他们。训练通常包括在一段较长的时间内提出并回答有关信息的问题。

最接近于对生产性练习有用的应用程序是闪卡应用程序。传统的（纸质）抽认卡通常一面是问题，另一面是答案。在学习课本章节时，一些学生创建了他们需要能够回答的问题，以便掌握材料。他们创建的问题数量不限，只要是他们认为达到他们所追求的掌握水平所需要的。这些抽认卡形成一副牌。然后学生们练习回答这些问题。

有些人认为闪卡学习必然是死记硬背的学习。然而，正如我们在第13章和第14章中所看到的，其有用性的基本原则可以在高效的自我发展实践中得到利用（生产性实践）。通过生产性实践，人们可以预测和控制自己的学习结果。拟定问题的过程本身就能帮助人们理解材料，并确定材料所传达的思想的相对重要性。制定答案显然是相当有用的。而且随着时间的推移，练习有助于学生发现他们不知道的东西，并弥补他们的知识差距。下面我们将探讨这种练习的其他好处。

有一系列令人眼花缭乱的闪卡应用程序可供选择。2012年，一个网站编列了167个闪卡应用程序，只是针对iOS设备。用户可以购买几乎所有科目的闪卡应用程序。有在线的、桌面的和智能手机的应用程序，例如，用户可以创建和分享闪卡卡组。在我建议苹果公司应该在其软件生态系统中支持练习的近两年后，他们以有限的形式将其添加到iBooks®和iBooks Author®中。不幸的是，前者不支持添加闪卡。这意味着学习者只能使用由内容开发商提供的闪卡。所有用户都应该能够在他们试图学习的任何内容中添加闪卡。

目前，闪卡应用程序受到一些严重的限制。最重要的问题与困扰注释软件的问题相同。授权模式。为了有资格成为一个有效的练习系统--而不仅仅是一个闪卡应用程序--软件必须与所有的应用程序和人们希望掌握的内容合理地结合起来。无论你是在阅读PDF文件、电子书或网页；聆听有声读物、播客、讲座或电话会议；观看屏幕投射；参加网络研讨会；还是仅仅寻求利用自己的见解，都不应该有关系。至于你是用智能手机、平板电脑还是电脑进行互动，也不应该重要。无论哪种情况，你都应该能够使用相同的工作流程和类似的界面，来注释传入的信息，并提取知识宝藏。

然后，这些知识宝藏可以被添加到你的生产实践数据库中，这样你就可以在以后的时间里用它们进行练习。你应该能够将闪卡--第三部分，我称之为挑战--与包含答案的资源联系起来。因此，在练习时，如果当前的卡片与某一资源有关，只需点击一下或做个手势，你就能在你选择的应用程序中找到该资源（例如，对于PDF文件，你选择的PDF阅读器）。同理，所有其他格式也是如此。否则，练习软件就不会有真正意义上的效率。

大多数闪卡软件的另一个问题是，它们是由技术爱好者设计的，没有考虑到认知科学。相反，认知科学家自己还没有在真实的环境中部署富有成效的练习系统，他们可以从中收集大量的数据来推进和检验他们的理论。闪存卡软件还有很多其他问题，在此不一一列举。

如果你像大多数知识工作者一样，你需要变得更加有效，你不能在通勤时浪费潜在的学习时间。也许你会在路上听播客或有声读物。但是，除了处理传入的信息，我们还必须花时间用知识宝石进行练习（鉴于练习比听更有效力）。因此，像注释系统一样，富有成效的练习系统需要利用软件和数据，跨越其所有的设备，移动和桌面。你的学习数据83必须是同步的，这样你就可以无缝地从一个设备切换到另一个设备而不至于失去节奏。你会在旅途中用你的智能手机练习。随意切换到你的平板电脑或计算机。在一个设备上添加问题，在另一个设备上使用它们。让应用程序将你的问题转换为音频形式，这样你就可以不用眼睛练习。目前还不支持这种做法，但随着云存储服务（以及点对点的等价物，如BitTorrent Sync®）的出现，这种移动认知生产力应用的出现只是时间问题84。

3.1.6 词汇管理和输入器在哪里？

为了从事新的工作，知识工作者需要对新的词汇和缩略语汤有一个健康的胃口。这不仅仅是一个为现有概念学习新词的问题。术语映射到一个复杂的概念和关系网中。

你会认为，一个专门为此目的而设计的应用程序会存在，并与每台电脑、平板电脑和智能手机一起运送。但是，知识工作者却只能靠自己的努力。你必须成为你自己的术语策划者。词汇表散落在许多文件中。当你阅读技术文件时，你必须以某种方式在文件库中学习你的方法。也许你会保留自己的词汇表。搜索引擎让你可以很容易地查找一个术语的定义。它们甚至可以帮助你找到你正在寻找的技术术语。但是，即使信息被很好地组织和呈现，生产实践的原则也适用。阅读并不是掌握信息的一个充分或有效的方法。人们必须对信息进行有成效的练习才能掌握它。而且我们必须掌握。因为通常情况下，我们不能从会议中抽身出来，去查找对话者术语的含义，或者去寻找描述 "What-ch'you Mc-Call it "的缩写，而这正是我们想要提到的。

这不是一个形象管理的问题。我们不能期望知道一切。没有一个系统会是完美的。我们也不可能总是预见到我们什么时候需要知道什么。尽管如此，知识工作者必须努力保持对相关知识的掌握。

根据我所说的两振原则，在第一次被要求使用某项知识的时候，不能产生知识宝藏，这可能是可以接受的。但是，如果我再次被 "测试"，我应该会成功。在知识工作的大联盟中，两次打击是不可接受的。人们需要一个可靠的基于软件的系统来掌握知识宝藏。

下面是它的工作方式。假设你在与客户的会议中需要 "Thunderbolt接口 "这个术语，但却无法产生它。会议结束后，你会捕捉到这个知识宝石。假设你经常使用该软件，该软件将确保你掌握它，以及其他知识宝藏。下次你需要 "光峰 "的新词时，"霹雳 "就会出现在你的脑海中。如果下一次，你因为没有把它加入你的系统（或者你没有系统）而失败了，那么你就出局了。当然，主动出击，在你第一次需要使用知识宝石之前捕捉到它们，那就更好了。

所以，如果我们有一些工具，不仅能帮助我们找到和体验信息，还能帮助我们掌握信息，岂不更好？当你打开一个PDF文档时，你的PDF阅读器原则上可以根据你之前的阅读情况，检测出哪些术语和概念对你来说是新的。当你在字典或任何资源中查找一个词时，你应该能够以最小的努力将其添加到你的高效练习应用程序的数据库中。然后，只要你经常使用它，该应用程序将负责培训你。

正如我们在上一章中看到的，掌握宝石比记住它们更重要。通常情况下，甚至没有必要明确地记住这些信息。例如，感知出价比回忆它们被称为出价更重要。我们需要有成效的实践技术，帮助我们产生不同类型的心智软件，包括检测知识是否适用的监视器。见下文 "掌握概念和词汇"。

通过www.DeepL.com/Translator（免费版）翻译

3.1.5 Where’s the productive practice app?

On the basis of research on expertise, cognitive skill acquisition, memory and educational psychology, I argue in Part 3 that to develop oneself, it helps to engage in regular productive practice. Reading, and rereading to the point of temporarily comprehending complex information is usually not sufficient to guarantee long lasting understanding. Normally, one should practice using, exploring,82 and utilizing the information. Thus, as one processes information, one would determine what part of the information, if any, one wishes to master. Beyond tagging information, users should be able to easily add knowledge gems to an application that will then train them with it. The training generally consists of posing and answering questions about and with the information, over an expanding period of time.

The applications that come closest to being useful for productive practice are flashcard apps. A traditional (paper) flashcard typically contains a question on one side and an answer on the other. As they study a textbook chapter, some students create questions they need to be able to answer in order to master the material. They create as many questions as they feel are required to achieve the level of mastery they seek. These flashcards form a deck. Students then practice answering the questions.

Some feel that flash-card learning is necessarily rote learning. However, as we will see in chapters 13 and 14, the principles underlying its usefulness can be leveraged in a highly effective self-development practice (productive practice). With productive practice one can predict and control one’s learning outcomes. The process of formulating questions itself helps one to understand the material and to determine the relative importance of the ideas it conveys. Developing answers is obviously quite useful. And practicing over time helps students discover what they don’t know and to bridge their knowledge gaps. We will explore other benefits of this type of practice below.

There is a dazzling array of flashcard applications to choose from. In 2012, a website cataloged 167 flashcard applications, just for iOS devices. Users can purchase flashcard applications for just about any subject. There are online, desktop and smartphone apps such as for users to create and share flashcard decks. Nearly two years after my suggestions that apple should support practicing throughout their software ecosystem, they added it in a limited form to iBooks® and iBooks Author®. Unfortunately, the former does not support adding flashcards. This means that learners are limited to the flashcards provided by content developers. All users should be able to add flashcards to whatever content they are trying to learn from.

Flashcard applications currently suffer from a number of serious limitations. The most significant problem is the same as the one that plagues annotation software: The delegation model. In order to qualify as a productive practice system—instead of merely being a flashcard app—software must be reasonably integrated with all of the applications and content one wishes to master. It should not matter whether you are reading a PDF file, ebook, or webpage; listening to an audiobook, podcast, lecture, or conference call; viewing a screen cast; participating in a webinar; or simply seeking to capitalize on your own insights. Nor should it matter whether you are interacting with a smartphone, a tablet or a computer. In either case, you should be able to use the same workflow, and a similar interface, to annotate incoming information and to extract knowledge gems.

These knowledge gems can then be added to your productive-practice database, so that you can practice with them at a later time. You should be able to link flashcards—in Part 3, I call them challenges—to the resources containing answers. So, when practicing, if the current card pertains to a resource, one click or gesture should bring you to that resource in the application of your choice (e.g., for PDF files, the PDF reader of your choice). Ditto for all the other formats. Otherwise, practice software will not be truly productive in the efficiency sense.

Another problem with most flashcards apps is that they are designed by technology enthusiasts without consideration for cognitive science. Conversely cognitive scientists themselves have yet to deploy productive practice systems in authentic settings from which they could collect large amounts of data to advance and test their theories. There are too many other issues with flashcard software to mention here.

If you are like most knowledge workers, your need to become ever more effective is so pressing that you can’t afford to waste potential learning time while commuting. Perhaps you listen to podcasts or audiobooks on the road. But beyond processing incoming information, we must also spend time practicing with knowledge gems (given that practice is more potent than listening). Therefore, like annotation systems, productive practice systems need to leverage software and data across all their devices, mobile and desktop. Your learning data83 must be synchronized, such that you can seamlessly switch from one device to another without losing a beat. You would practice on your smartphone on the go. Switch to your tablet or computer at will. Add questions on one device, and use them on another. Let the application convert your questions to audio form so that you can practice eyes-free. This is not yet supported but with cloud storage services (and peer-to-peer equivalents, such as BitTorrent Sync®) it is just a matter of time before such mobile cognitive-productivity apps are available.84

3.1.6 Where’s the glossary manager and instiller?

To take on new jobs, knowledge workers need a healthy appetite for new vocabulary and acronym soup. It’s not just a matter of learning new words for existing concepts. Terminology maps to a complex web of concepts and relations.

You would think that an application specifically designed for this purpose would exist and ship with every computer, tablet and smartphone. But knowledge workers are left to their own devices. You must be your own terminology curator. Glossaries are scattered across many documents. As you read technical documents, somehow you must learn your way around the corpus of documents. Perhaps you keep your own glossary. Search engines make it easy to look up a term’s definition. They can even help you find the technical term you are looking for. But even when the information is well organized and presented, the principle of productive practice applies: Reading is not a sufficient or efficient way to master information. One must productively practice information to master it. And master we must. For one can’t normally excuse oneself from a meeting to look-up the meaning of our interlocutors’ terms, or to find the acronym that describes that “What-ch’you Mc-Call it” one one wants to refer to.

This is not a matter of image management. One can’t expect to know everything. No system will be perfect. Nor can we always anticipate what we will need to know when. Nevertheless, knowledge workers must try to stay on top of pertinent knowledge.

According to what I call the two-strike principle, it may be acceptable to fail to produce a knowledge gem the first time one is called upon to use it. However, if I am “tested” again, I ought to succeed. In the major leagues of knowledge work, two strikes is not acceptable. One needs a reliable software-based system to master knowledge gems.

Here is how it could work. Suppose you need the term “Thunderbolt interface” in a meeting with a client, but can’t produce it. After the meeting, you would capture this knowledge gem. Assuming you use the software regularly, the software would ensure that you master it, along with other knowledge gems. The next time you need the new word for “Light Peak”, “Thunderbolt” will come to mind. If the next time, you fail because you have not added it to your system (or you do not have a system), then you have struck out. Of course, it’s even better to be pro-active and capture knowledge gems before you need to use them in the first place.

So, wouldn’t it be better if we had tools that were designed to help us not merely find and experience information, but master it? When you open a PDF document, your PDF reader could in principle detect which terms and concepts are new to you, based on your prior reading. When you look up a word in a dictionary, or in any resource for that matter, you should be able to add it to your productive practice app’s database with minimal effort. The app would then take care of training you, so long as you regularly use it.

There is more to mastering gems than remembering them, as we saw in the previous chapter. Often, it is not even necessary to explicitly remember the information. It’s more important to perceive bids than to recall that they are referred to as bids, for example. We need productive practice technology that helps us produce different types of mindware, including monitors that detect when knowledge is applicable. See “Master concepts and vocabulary”, below.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23550611-cognitive-productivity