Based on our meeting on Friday, I pulled up the research on keyboarding (I think it’s the same that Solomon found, or at least similar. I looked at more research, but it all seemed to agree with this research: http://goo.gl/hpbVgv) and it confirms that below 3rd grade is not effective, students need 15-30 hours to learn the right fingers, and apparently the research shows that the person teaching keyboarding needs to understand it.
WHAT:
Here is a proposed matrix (http://goo.gl/xNkaOQ) for student technology skills from Mary Beth Hertz, a K-8 tech teacher in Philadelphia in a high-poverty school. Each skill is rated per grade as either an Introductory (I), Developing (D) or Applied (A) Skill.
3rd grade: 10 WPM
4th: 15 WPM
5th: 20 WPM
6th: 25 WPM
HOW:
We discussed using Typing Club, as a majority of the team has used successfully and appreciate the reports and way students are managed. Sue also discovered that it uses SSO (Single Sign-On), which is great for us, since it means that students can use the exact same password they use to sign onto the computer.
WHEN:
We discussed having this at the beginning of the year when teachers are not necessarily using the computers for writing papers, testing, etc, to support students in typing a certain WPM for that year. Also, if they’ve achieved that WPM, there is no reason they have to continue the keyboarding program rather than doing some true typing (writing their writing workshop stories, blogging, etc).
Please provide your feedback via this blog post so we all can be a part of the discussion and decision making. Thanks!
I put in a HelpDesk for Mike Shaw to communicate with Typing Club about how the SSO works -- and make sure it does work the way we want with Google Apps.
ReplyDeleteI found a website at a school (Baucom Elementary) that has links to 24 keyboarding practice sites. I recognize a few names from sites others have spoken about at meetings. Since this is a school site, I would hope that these are vetted.
ReplyDeleteMr. Kent's Typing Practice
This is tough. Make all your selections on the left and good luck. Put only one space after the period here. Mr. Kent's Typing Tutor
A great keyboarding practice. You can select lessons on specific groups of keys and adjust the skill level. Space Invaders
Strange creatures are wiggling their way down from space. Stop them by typing.
Krazy Keyz
Test your speed with any of the 5 games here.
Goalie
Help the goalie keep the other team from scoring by typing the words or numbers you see. Type Me
Rescue falling letters and words by typing them correctly on the keyboard.
Ten Key Tutor
Practice using the numeric keypad.
Balloon Blast Typing
Select your lesson and your speed and start blasting balloons. Type to Learn for Kids
Type words by pressing the letters shown in green.
Mr. Kent's Typing Test
Select the type of test and number of sentences. Be careful! This isn't easy.
Type Me!
Type each letter as it falls. See how many you can get.
Dance Mat Typing
It's time to rock and roll and start typing with this dancing and singing group of animals.
Find the Letter
Type the correct letter as it appears. Be careful. Cup Stacking
Stack and unstack the cups by typing the characters on them. The Typing of the Ghosts
Destroy the ghosts by typing the words on them.
Super Hyper Spider Typer
Save Berry the hairy spider from being eaten by the lizards by typing the words or letters that appear. Power Typing
Follow the lessons and improve your typing skills.
Alpha Drop
Type the letters as they fall correctly on the keyboard.
Type Type Revolution
Type the letters you see as quickly as you can as they pass through the bar. Skywords
Type words as they fly out and earn special stars. Up Beat
Keep the rhythm and play notes as you practice the homerow keys.
Bubble Typing Game
Burst the bubbles as you type the letters in them.
Barracuda
Help the barracuda keep the river clean by typing the words as they appear. Finger Frenzy
See how fast you can type the alphabet. Get ready! Go!
http://baucomes.wcpss.net/keyboarding/keyboarding
Also from Laurie:
ReplyDeletePlease, even if you are sick of getting (and maybe) reading long messages from me and don’t read the rest of this, please watch the YouTube video on the program “Read, Write, & Type” (in which the use of the program with ESL students is highlighted) at the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOcW-IzYaMA
Read, Write & Type is a combination program, merging the teaching of phonics-based reading skills with an introduction to typing. How do you get 6 to 9 year-olds to sit still long enough to learn touch typing? Read, Write & Type approaches the challenge by rolling the requisite progressions and drills into a rescue story.
I did some more searches related to our discussion. The NY Times article Robert found is very good and has some good references in it. I also checked the NCBI database (sorry-still instinctual from my biotech life) to see if there were any medical and/or psychological issues identified with trying to get young children to type. Nothing came up - although that just means that there have not been significant instances reported yet. Several doctors’ quotes that I saw compared it to teaching kids to play instruments at a young age and being able to finger chords and hold bows. They seemed to feel it is okay as long as the kids are not exhibiting physical or emotional problems related to the practice.
There is a lot of anecdotal evidence out there. The consensus seems to be that 2nd grade and younger the kids do not have the manual dexterity or hand span/finger length to handle a standard size keyboard while keeping their hands in the correct hand positions (which seems to be just common sense). The obvious answer of buying child size keyboards does not seem to be an option for our district. Another solution that, to me, does not seem very practical: have the small kids practice keyboarding on a cardboard cutout or plastic simulation of a smaller keyboard. This seems really boring and impractical unless you have someone to sit with each kid and watch (and still boring).
Here’s another teacher’s opinion.
http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2011/02/when-should-students-start-learning-to.html
There is a program called Jumpstart Typing mentioned in the NY Times article from Robert that costs $700 for a network license and is aimed at 2nd to 5th grade. “Read, Write & Type,” by The Learning Company is aimed at ages 6-8 and got good reviews. This is for phonics and learning the alphabet, also, so this might solve some of the concern about instructional time.
In my opinion, we can be having the youngest kids learning where the letters are on the keyboard without forcing them to hold there hands still on the keyboards without moving the other fingers. They can pick their hands up but still use their index finger to type a “u,” a pinky to type a “q,” their thumbs to hit the space bar and pick their hands up to do it. Then, later, when they have the coordination, reach, and strength to keep their other fingers on the base row of keys and their wrists in the correct position, they can. As I opined yesterday, there is value in the kids knowing where the keys are and I have seen many of my kids doing things a lot faster because of this. (FYI, I wrote this part before finding the video on Read, Write & Type and reading the Education World piece-which I found but then saw Robert had already posted it.)
Also, in reading a lot of these articles and blogs, it occurs to me that we should also be teaching and reminding our kids about taking breaks and moving their wrists and necks around to prevent repetitive motion injuries. Most of the information that I saw on this related to kids was about using trackballs and joysticks in games. However, we should be educating them about this with typing also. I know I talked to my students about this when I first had them go onto typingclub.com, but I have not reiterated it recently.
From Sue Allen:
ReplyDeleteHi All,
I just looked at this video and then went to the Read,Write,type website. I like this program because it ties keystrokes to phonics sounds, not to letter names. I learned to type using ‘whole words’ and I think that’s what makes me type fast.
I’d love to hear what lower grade teachers think of it.
Also, licenses can be re-used by any number of students. We can buy 100 and use at one school for a month, then archive those students and re-use the licenses at another school the next month! There is a version for K-2 and another version for grades 2-4.
It does not do LDAP authentication, but we upload student un/pw info using csv file, so we can give students the same un/pw as R-net and/or i-Ready.
Below is their pricing and info email.
Sue
Dear Educator:
Below, you will find our school price matrix for the Read, Write & Type Online Edition. We are offering schools a deep discount for multiple-student licenses and for multiple-year licenses. We want to make the online edition accessible and affordable for entire schools and districts.
The Read, Write & Type Online Edition will replace our Network Edition. It will give school users all the conveniences of the network product (and more) and will eliminate the problems associated with upgrading or mixing operating systems and with setting permissions on a local server. All your school or district needs to use the online edition is a reliable, fairly fast internet connection and a browser.
Added features of the Read, Write & Type Online Edition:
- The ability to import lists of students from a delimited text file
- The ability to archive a single student or groups of students who have completed the program and put new students in their subscription slots, during the subscription period.
- The ability to restrict or allow access to the online program during non-school hours, depending on whether or not you'd like your kids to practice at home.
Standard Read, Write & Type features:
- The ability to adjust the "Success Rate" in the Spaceship Assessment component, for children who are struggling or who need more challenge.
- The ability to activate ESL help in Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese or Malay (and soon in Vietnamese, Portuguese, Korean and Farsi). Activating the ESL help will allow children to hear instructions repeated in their native language by clicking a yellow balloon.
- The ability to view and print reports, assessing your students' progress in three areas: reading comprehension, phonemic awareness and spelling.
- The ability to create sub-administrators, which we call "associates," and assign some of the subscription slots to each associate. (eg: A district administrative hierarchy might be 1) district administrator, 2) school tech coordinators, 3) classroom teachers )
The Online Edition is available to schools with a purchase order. Please fax your purchase order to (415) 472-3106, e-mail it to orders@talkingfingers.com or call us if you have any questions, at (800) 674-9126.
Thanks for your interest!
The folks at Talking Fingers