Shouldn't we Start Teaching Keyboarding as Often as Handwriting?

In 2002, the state of Maine decided to equip each of their 7th and 8th graders with an apple ibook (called the Maine Learning Technology Initiative). In October of 2004, 31 Maine high schools adopted the laptop program. In 2003, the state of Michigan began Michigan's Freedom to Learn Program targeting sixth graders and arming them with HP laptops.

What does this mean? Wireless connectivity to information anytime and almost any place (the laptops would need to be in range of a base station).

In New York State we are not initiating such a change in educational focus, but maybe we should. In any event, students interacting with computers is on the increase and thus their need to learn keyboarding is a must. Below are some answers to some FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) about keyboarding from teachers.

How can my students practice keyboarding at home if the keyboarding software is only loaded at school? Many web pages are being created to give kids a chance to sharpen their skills. Some of these practice sites on the web are:

• Elmos Keyboard-o-rama
• Pop Cap Games, Typer Shark
• Touch Typing
• Typing Tutor
• Keyboarding for Kids

How can I fit keyboarding into my curriculum? I used to use the keyboard in many ways when I taught third grade. One of my favorite activities was to use paper keyboards and/or donated keyboards not connected to computers.

• Use paper keyboards (<---click on the link to download a .pdf version of a paper keyboard) or donated keyboards to:
  
  • type spelling words
    
  • type vocabulary words
  • type name, address, numbers,
    
  • type dolch words
• As a Learning Center with the above online practice sites or with these suggestions:
  
  • use Funbrain's Word Turtle to make word searches with spelling or vocabulary words
  • use Discovery School's Puzzlemaker to do the same as above
  • use Funbrain's Stay Afloat to play hangman (you must use their word lists, unfortunately)
    
• Type comments to a blog post - Propose a question on a blog (get your own here) and let your students post the answer to that question. Here are some examples (From My Student Voices Blog). They will get immediate feeback, you will get a record of what they said and they will be using the keyboard.