I haven't seen a lot of discussion about what a perfect learning tool for Japanese would be, so I thought I'd start it here. My ideals:
Learning Mode
* Repeats item, even if successful, enough to make it stick.
* Detects when an item is easy or hard and adjusts above repetition accordingly
* Has manual-override for items in case auto-detection fails
Retention Mode
* Repeats item at spaced intervals for long-term retention
* Initiates learning mode, possibly in reduced form, for failures
Misc
* Charts for breakdown of characters (kana and kanji both) and items.
* Can import items/data from other tools
* Can export items/data
* Supports custom lists
* Supports lesson plans for targeted learning
* Can deal with single characters, words, and sentences.
* Supports cloze deletion.
* Accepts typed answers
* Supports multiple-choice answers
* Supports SRS-style easy/medium/hard answers
* Supports media (video, audio, images)
* Supports furigana
* Supports example sentences for vocab
* Web-based, with support for PDAs and phones, when possible.
Obviously, this is a hybrid of Anki, Smart.fm and ReadTheKanji. Each of them have their own strengths, but they don't work together very well at all.
I plan to create this system myself, but if someone else beats me to it, I won't be mad at them or sue them or anything. I plan to follow the same path as ReadTheKanji and use publicly available lists of words and sentences at first, as well as starting free and then working into a pay-model to support the site. (I'm not rich and just supporting it while it grows will be hard enough, there's no way I could keep it free forever.) Advertising will be considered as an income model, but I dislike ads, so it's not likely. Eventually, user-generated content will be accepted as well. I may even branch out into other languages eventually, but that is still up in the air.
I am actively looking for input from others on how to improve the above list of features.
Learning Mode
* Repeats item, even if successful, enough to make it stick.
* Detects when an item is easy or hard and adjusts above repetition accordingly
* Has manual-override for items in case auto-detection fails
Retention Mode
* Repeats item at spaced intervals for long-term retention
* Initiates learning mode, possibly in reduced form, for failures
Misc
* Charts for breakdown of characters (kana and kanji both) and items.
* Can import items/data from other tools
* Can export items/data
* Supports custom lists
* Supports lesson plans for targeted learning
* Can deal with single characters, words, and sentences.
* Supports cloze deletion.
* Accepts typed answers
* Supports multiple-choice answers
* Supports SRS-style easy/medium/hard answers
* Supports media (video, audio, images)
* Supports furigana
* Supports example sentences for vocab
* Web-based, with support for PDAs and phones, when possible.
Obviously, this is a hybrid of Anki, Smart.fm and ReadTheKanji. Each of them have their own strengths, but they don't work together very well at all.
I plan to create this system myself, but if someone else beats me to it, I won't be mad at them or sue them or anything. I plan to follow the same path as ReadTheKanji and use publicly available lists of words and sentences at first, as well as starting free and then working into a pay-model to support the site. (I'm not rich and just supporting it while it grows will be hard enough, there's no way I could keep it free forever.) Advertising will be considered as an income model, but I dislike ads, so it's not likely. Eventually, user-generated content will be accepted as well. I may even branch out into other languages eventually, but that is still up in the air.
I am actively looking for input from others on how to improve the above list of features.
