Does Type To Learn teach keyboarding skills? This is the question most frequently posed for elementary teachers. Keyboarding is one skill that is most often overlooked in the elementary classroom, yet it is just as critical as learning basic math skills or basic reading skills. Students are using the computer at a very early age, and will develop poor keyboarding habits as they grow older. These habits are very hard to break. Keyboarding is a skill that we need to take a closer look at, and we must consider it to be just as important as all other basic skills young students need to learn. Is Type to Learn the answer? It's a great start, but it's not the answer. Students need to be monitored, corrected, and encouraged. Keyboarding is a developmental skill over a period of time. If students are left in front of the program without supervision, they will break away from the proper technique that needs to be reinforced. In teaching the keyboarding basics, teachers should emphasize technique, not speed and accuracy. And it's OK for students to go through a level several times. Students think it's about speed, teachers think it's about speed. It's not. It's all in the technique when developing keyboarding skills. Once the technique is developed, then speed and accuracy will begin to develop on it's own. Developing good technique is very much similar to playing a musical instrument.
Keyboarding Overview
Table of Contents
Good Keyboarding Target Zones
Good Articles for Keyboarding:
Handouts:
Blank Keyboard (Mac)Complete Keyboard (Mac)
Posture Poster
Fingers Colored (Intermediate)
Left Hand vs. Right Hand (Primary)
Blank Keyboard (Primary)
Web-Based Resources: