Keyboarding? What does keyboarding have to do with innovative uses of technology in literacy curriculum? This was my initial reaction when we began discussing the pros and cons of teaching keyboarding to elementary students in class on Monday.
After the discussion and thinking about keyboarding from the researchers’ view point, here are my thoughts:
· If students have an opportunity to “explore” the keyboard at an early age, they will have prior knowledge to build on when they begin a more formal keyboarding program in upper elementary.
· The traditional “Home Row Key Method” does not work for all students.
· We, as educators, need to be more flexible and guide students to figure out which method is efficient for them.
· SPEED IS NOT NECESSARY!
· Students need to apply keyboarding skills in a meaningful way.
· Keyboarding does not replace handwriting.
· DO NOT depend on the software (Type to Learn, Mavis Beacon, SuperKids, etc) to teach students, a trained keyboarding teacher is needed.
· Students need 30 hours of keyboarding instruction to master skills.
· Online keyboarding games are a motivating way for students to reinforce skills.
· Here are two great websites with interactive keyboarding games:
With the advancement of new technologies, keyboarding has been overlooked and forgotten. When students are not able to efficiently keyboard, simple computer tasks become difficult and digital projects become a frustration for both students and teacher. As technology is increasingly integrated into curriculum, it is essential that we are providing our students with a solid foundation of basic technological skills, such as keyboarding, in order to ensure their success.
Image of preschoolers playing keyboarding games found at: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.qwertykeyboard.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Keyboard-preschool-kids-flickr.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.qwertykeyboard.org/computer-keyboards-for-children&usg=__9B_6Mren1e2Vq_B_WfpMAFrY8jM=&h=400&w=500&sz=112&hl=en&start=13&sig2=JF6ql8ZtLiU2OOMS_JoEeA&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=EhjEuy6f55EerM:&tbnh=104&tbnw=130&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dchildren%2Bkeyboarding%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GGLL_en%26biw%3D1259%26bih%3D597%26tbm%3Disch&ei=_zTTTf-dPImh-QbGpIXZCg
I agree in that teachers need to be flexible with their teaching of keyboarding. I also agree in that the speed is not important it is if they are able to find the keys on the keyboard and know how the keyboard works. I think it is important that students are able to explore the keyboard at a young age so that they can break bad habits when they are taught keyboarding at a more advanced level when they get older.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we need to be flexible in our teaching of keyboarding skills. I suffered through several years of boring keyboarding and I don't really use anything that I learned from it other than homerow. I do think it needs to be introduced at a young age but certainly not younger than second semester 1st grade. I liked how the kindergarten teacher at my placement offered just a keyboard in dramatic play for students to play with. They were pointing out letters and "pretending" to type.
ReplyDeleteI had the exact same initial reaction. I thought talking about keyboarding was not very "innovative" and I have to admit I kind of rolled my eyes at the thought of it. Then as I read the articles and we talked about it in class I felt silly for not seeing right away that keyboarding is an essential skill - if not the core foundational skill - for promoting literacy with technology.
ReplyDeleteI like that you mentioned speed not being so essential. When we talked about it in class I kind of connected the speed issue to students who can accurately read really fast but then fall way short in the comprehension department. Just like we want students to read in a way that is meaningful we should also want our students to write and type in a way that is meaningful.