I never thought about the way we tend to teach keyboarding skills, or ways to improve upon how I was taught. When I was in grade school, we learned keyboarding from a computer game, starting in third or fourth grade. We were also required to take another keyboarding class in junior high for nine weeks, which used a similar program. I actually enjoyed my experiences in learning to correctly type, but it also sounds like I had more opportunities to practice these skills compared to some of my classmates. Others mentioned that they did not start practicing keyboarding in school until they were older, sometimes the classes were taught sporadically without time to practice after the game, or just simple did not like the programs that were used to teach how to type. I liked the game we used, and we were able to use the computer lab at least once a week. It helped build confidence because I could see how I was improving week after week and made me feel more grown-up since I could type how I saw other adults typing.
Although using programs like the one I had experienced without additional aid from trained teachers is not ideal, I still believe it is better than nothing. It also helps students realize that people learn to type a specific way, and there is skill to it. With that being said however, it is important that students can practice these new skills in a number of different ways. A teacher does not have to be trained in teaching keyboarding to implement one of these programs, then having students use MS Word for more practice. I was also surprised to learn many people do not start to learn to keyboard until fifth or sixth grade, when most second and third graders I know are developmentally able to begin learning. According to the Baugh (6/5/08) article on keyboarding, second and third graders "develop keyboarding skills with out a lot of instruction" and their writing becomes more detailed and structural appropriate as they learn how to correctly type. As we talk about teaching keyboarding more in class, I would like to learn more about how people become qualified to do this and how many schools are using teachers trained in this to teach this skill.
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Interesting question posed at the end of your blog. I can answer it somewhat, but with no official knowledge of really what is actually happening. It has been my observation that... teachers who are taught how to teach keyboarding are prepared in traditional business education programs. Those preparation programs that are preparing teachers who will teach business type skills. Obviously, many of these teachers are placed in high schools so that is rather late to capitalize on those teaching skills. Wouldn't it be nice if part of the business teacher's duties would be to teach keyboarding at the elementary level? That just seems like a win-win situation for me.
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