I'm learning Chinese and whenever I forget a character I just whip out my trusty mobile phone, type it in, and pick it from the list that comes up.

I hardly ever have to write Chinese with a pencil and paper anyway; 99% is typing.

I think that as China progresses, they will rely less and less on rote learning and more on technology.

Here's an interesting article on the subject:

http://www.pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html