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tirrella

Education World: Keyboarding Skills: When Should They Be Taught? - 1 views

www.educationworld.com/...curr076.shtml

keyboarding

shared by tirrella on 11 Aug 15 - Cached
  • 's good for students to get familiar with the keyboard in the earlier grades. We encourage students to pretend there's a line down the middle of the keyboard and to keep the right hand to the right of the line and the left hand to the left.
  • We also encourage them to type with more than one finger because they may tend to use just the index finger. For later instruction, it's good for students to develop the habit of using more than one finger early on."
  • Theresa Tovey believes one reason to wait until 4th grade to teach keyboarding is that students need to develop handwriting skills as well.
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  • "If you combine keyboarding with letter-recognition and hand-eye coordination activities in grades K-3, then you provide a developmentally appropriate skill that helps reinforce classroom learning and develop fine motor skills,
  • n 5th grade says keyboard practice is graded on accuracy, speed, and "the four:" sitting up; having feet in front, on the floor; looking up more than down; and using the home row keys. In this class, a speed of less than 15 words per minute on a timed test would earn a C, because that is the speed of normal handwriting. Typically, 25 to 30 words per minute or more earns an A, assuming that accuracy is high and "the four" have been performed.
tirrella

Education World: Teaching Keyboarding: More Than Just Typing - 1 views

www.educationworld.com/...tech072.shtml

keyboarding

shared by tirrella on 11 Aug 15 - Cached
  • "In first grade," Marie added, "the children may start by typing their name -- letters they know very well and now need to find in the strange land of QWERTY. Children are encouraged to use two hands -- to use the left hand for the letters on the left and the right hand for the letters on the right. The keyboard is really not designed for accurate use of typing skills by young hands, however. By middle school, the children have the pinkie reach needed."
  • "I did formal keyboarding instruction in third grade; in fourth and fifth grade, students were expected to have their hands on home row keys with proper form when they typed any of their assignments,
  • I did do a four-week review of keyboarding for the fourth graders, but beyond that, instructional time was not used for the skill and drill of learning the QWERTY layout of the keyboard. Instead, children were provided with meaningful activities to complete on the computer. This type of real-life practice and encouragement from teachers to use two hands helps children become competent typists.
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  • "To me, it makes more sense to practice typing by actually typing reports, stories, poems, and so on,"
  • Students should learn the proper form (with drill) in third grade; they should be expected to be able to use those skills in fourth and fifth grade."
  • a lot of research had gone into the order of introducing the keys to develop motor skill memory. Most software programs and elementary teachers ignore this research and introduce the keys in a manner that allows them to spell words or play games. I cringe during these discussions but keep my mouth shut and my keyboard keys still."
  • "Most K-8 teachers have no vocational certification in teaching keyboarding," agreed Carla Cruzan, "and students need feedback. The software responds to the key pushed. It doesn't know which finger the student used to push it.
  • Keyboarding is an important psychomotor skill that all students need to learn, but that fact is not being recognized. You have no idea how hard it is to untrain students coming to us at the high school level with poor technique.
  • As a result, many students will never be good at composing straight to the computer because they can't take their eyes off the keyboard and keep them on the monitor or text!
  • Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Accuracy Speed
  • "Keyboarding is a motor skill,"
  • It is a matter of training fingers to respond correctly and quickly to press the correct key -- kind of like in athletics where you keep doing it over and over again until it becomes habit.
  • "This research found the drills dealing with key combinations not only to develop these motor skills the quickest way but also to develop those skills so they won't be lost. There is a reason for those fff fjf jfj jjj drills."
  • "My emphasis is on proper form not speed,"
  • My students are expected to have their hands on home row keys, to use the proper finger for each letter, to have their wrists flat and their thumbs on the space bar. And they are expected to know where the keys are without looking.
  • "I set a goal of three words per minute for third graders and around seven for fourth and fifth graders," said Patterson. "I lower it or raise it depending on the success of the individual student.
  • I don't want to frustrate students by raising the speed beyond what they can manage, forcing them to have to look at the keys in order to be successful."
  • "My emphasis is not on speed,
  • "Speed is not what is most important. Most important is correct technique. With correct keying, speed will come automatically with time and use. Accuracy will come automatically by letting up on the speed. Emphasize correct technique only at these ages."
  • "When we begin to study a physical skill, we must concentrate upon it," Lauren Eve Pomerantz, programs coordinator at the California Space & Science Center, told Education World. "Then the information is stored in the neocortex, the center of our conscious thought. As we perfect our skill through physical drill, whether it be piano scales or ballet barre exercises or DeNealian drill sheets or karate katas, the information is moved into deeper areas of the brain that bypass conscious thought. "The true measure of the typist or keyboardist is that he or she no longer thinks, 'I must press my fourth finger on my left hand without moving up or down,' but thinks 's' and the finger responds automatically," Pomerantz added.
  • "In typing, first you learn where the keys are and how to stroke firmly and rhythmically," Pomerantz continued. "Then you learn to combine letters into words. Along the way, you learn certain common patterns. Not very long after beginning, when kids are still thinking about the letters that make up each word, they can type such words as the and and because drills make them repeat those commonly used sequences.
  • "Initially, students get much of the psychomotor feedback they need --feedback that they have struck the correct keys -- as they watch their monitors," Carla Cruzan said. "However, in the very beginning stages, they also need to occasionally look back and forth to their keyboards to develop their eye-hand coordination. When students switch to copying text off a printed page -- if it is introduced too early -- they struggle to keep their eyes on the text, and they lose this important feedback. Switching their eyes constantly between text and keyboard, they also lose their place in the text and numerous errors creep in. The same thing happens when they compose straight to the monitor. This frustrates the natural eye-hand coordination process of learning the keys. "The initial keyboard learning is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for students to look at the keyboard as needed," Cruzan added. "Students need to learn to key at their own pace or the developmental process will be frustrated. Ignore all errors at this time -- except for errors in technique. Let your students know that their typing will always contain some errors. What will change, with time, is the type of errors they will make."
  • Explain to students that the memory is in the muscles.
  • Use an example such as riding a bicycle.
  • Tell them that once their fingers learn the keyboard, the fingers will not forget,
  • Tell students to be patient with themselves; they are training their finger muscles to remember the position of the keys. This is why it is important to sit up straight, keep their feet flat on the floor and their keyboards at the proper height and adjustment -- so the fingers always approach the keys the same way. It is part of muscle memory
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