It is my privilege to introduce to you Microsoft Flashcards, the latest project from Microsoft Education Labs.  Flashcards is a tool that helps you create, share, and most importantly, study more efficiently.

Flashcards offers a unique learning experience that you don’t get with traditional flashcards.  Cards that you have never studied before are introduced at a rate that is customized for you; it will introduce new cards more often if you show that you know the previously introduced material, and it will introduce new cards less often if you still need to learn some of the previously introduced material.  The order in which cards are reviewed is also customized for you based on how well you know the cards.  Over time, cards that are easy for you will be displayed relatively less often, while cards that are difficult for you will be displayed relatively more often.   Finally, your progress is all saved in the cloud, so you can study from home as well as from school and the system will use all of your previous progress to determine the best order for you to study. The end result is—dare I say it—actually kind of fun.

Don’t just take my word for it though.  You can see for yourself right now.  Just follow this link. 

This release is a huge milestone for the project, and it couldn’t have gotten this far without the passion, support, guidance, and inspiration of many people.  We have many ideas for the future of this project, but before we get ahead of ourselves, want to get feedback on what we've done so far.  If you like it and would like to see more things come out of it there are several things you can do to help.  First and foremost share it with people.  Blog it, tweet it, email it, post it.  The more people that are exposed to it the more we will learn.  Second, visit our discussion forums and tell us what you like about it, and what you don’t like about it.  Tell us about the features that are important to you.

One last thing I should mention, if you’re interested in the science and technical details behind Microsoft Flashcards, you might be interested in this short whitepaper (PDF,XPS) that describes the techniques used as a part of this project.  Questions and comments about the whitepaper can also be posted in our discussion forums and are also very much appreciated.