I wanted to create this post before our class this week. As I was looking at the syllabus, I noticed that we are going to be talking about keyboarding and why we teach it, different software, and about teaching the writing process through technology. I wanted to see what opinions you all have on keyboarding and teaching it in school BEFORE we talked about it in class on Wednesday. When I was in school, I took a keyboarding class in middle school for the first time. Then, in high school I took Keyboarding I and Keyboarding II. I honestly think that this is why I am a fairly fast typer and also why I know how to do quite a bit on a computer and if I don't know how to do it, I can usually figure it out quickly and without much help. Did all of you have experience with keyboarding in school??
The elementary schools that I have taught at have not necessarily had a keyboarding class. One of the elementary schools that I am in right now teaches keyboarding in the 4th grade. I think it is very introductory and I've only seen it taught briefly. But, I do know it is using timed typing and it teaching different skills each lesson. Also, they use the little keyboarding books that you sit right beside the computer. I am anxious to see the different online options for teaching keyboarding this week in class. Please share your experiences with keyboarding in schools and have you seen keyboarding in any of the schools you've been in and/or worked in and at what levels??
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I think we must be on the same page, because I just posted a similar statement on my blog. I too took keyboarding when I was in middle school and, in hindsight I wish I would have had it a little bit earlier. I think it would have been easier. I definitely think it is important thing to learn. It will be interesting to hear what everyone else thinks about it tonight!
ReplyDeleteI have just posted my thoughts on Beth's blog earlier, before my tutoring session. I have one more interesting thing to add after my tutoring session earlier this afternoon. I gave my tutee a writing task. I asked if he preferred to do it with pencil and paper or on my laptop. He went with the former. I asked why and he said that it distracted the writing process having to find the letters from the keyboard and to check if he typed them correctly. He stated that he was never trained keyboarding, which is something he picked up casually. I asked him to show me how he typed. He was using only four fingers (two from each hand) to type. I can understand how it can be a distraction having to worry about typing in the right words while trying to construct a writing. I would say it again, keyboarding training should be included in the L2 learning process!
ReplyDeleteI did not learn how to type in school until 6th grade when you had to take a class on comouters and even then I could never get it becuase it was not engaging. I needed to type words not all that home row stuff. At home we did have a typing game but I liked the number part better so was always playing that part.
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