Search Engines
Research Help
Tools for Learning
Keyboarding
Printable Resources
*The links on this page were completely updated in September 2007.
Learning to keyboard properly with control and speed enhances the ability of students to communicate efficiently and effectively. Research indicates that students with good keyboarding skills demonstrate improved language arts skills overall. This is partly because they can compose their ideas faster and are much more willing to revise and edit written work because they can go back in to make corrections, add more descriptive details, and reorganize sentences or paragraphs without having to rewrite the whole piece over again from the beginning. Therefore, quantity of written work often increases as well as the quality of the finished product.
In today’s world, keyboarding is an important skill for all students to learn and an especially essential skill for students who have fine motor challenges or struggle with writing or spelling. For many students with these challenges, learning how to keyboard effectively and having access to a keyboard in the classroom and at home can make the writing task much less demanding. We know that a child who feels successful with a task is going to have improved self-esteem and be motivated to try again.
So when should children start to learn to keyboard?
Some parents are concerned that if children start keyboarding too young, it will be at the expense of their printing or handwriting skills. Alberta Education has expectations that both printing and handwriting are taught as well as keyboarding. While children are exposed to the keyboard from the beginning, actual keyboard instruction often starts around grade three.
Alberta Curriculum
English Language Arts
General Outcome 4 - Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to enhance the clarity and artistry of communication.
4.1 Enhance and Improve
Kindergarten
Grade One
Grade Two
Grade Three
Grade Four
Grade Five
Grade Six
Supporting Keyboarding at Home
Learning to keyboard requires time, patience, persistence, practice, and good instruction. Keyboarding is a cumulative skill and it is important that proper technique be taught from the beginning. ‘Hunting and pecking’ and other self-taught methods are hard to correct if they are allowed to continue for too long.
Parents interested in supporting their child’s keyboarding skills at home should first check with their child’s school to find out how keyboarding is being taught. If there is a software program being used, it might be possible to purchase a home edition. Some teachers use a method where they call out letters to students as they keep up on their computers at their desks.
Regardless of the methods used, home practice should be consistent and frequent to develop skills. Have your child practice keyboarding on a daily basis. Young children might only practice for five to ten minutes while older students might take ten to twenty minutes, depending on the activity. Consistency of practice is going to make a big difference in developing the skills.
While speed and accuracy are important in keyboarding, the focus really needs to be on control. Speed and accuracy develop out of good keyboarding instruction and can only occur when there is control. If you have a child who is frustrated with keyboarding, make sure the software or program they are using is not causing them to sacrifice control for speed. Some keyboarding ‘games’ push kids into their frustration zone and then learning and skill development just aren’t going to happen.
And finally, many schools and parents are starting to look at portable keyboards such as the AlphaSmart or QuickPad. These learning tools run on batteries and provide easy access to a keyboard when students are in class and can’t get to a computer to take notes or do their writing. Having good keyboarding skills are going to increase the effectiveness of using these tools.
Online Resources for Keyboarding:
Computer Keyboard
http://www.ckls.org/~crippel/computerlab/tutorials/keyboard/page1.html
Click on an area below to learn about the keys in that area of the keyboard.
Dance Mat Typing
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/flash/stage1.shtml
This animated keyboarding tutorial is intended for students just beginning to keyboard. Each of the four levels are divided into three stages. Begin at Level 1 and build up your skills gradually through to Level 4.
The Frogs Are Off Their Diet!
http://www.freetypinggame.net/play3.asp
The frogs are eating all of the letters. Help them by typing the words before they get swallowed!
Healthy Typing
http://www.nimblefingers.com/a_exer.htm
This stress reduction series of 20 activities will keep you body limber and your fingers nimble. If you use these typing warm up exercises, and if you follow the advice of the "Little Professor" in the NimbleFingers keyboarding program, you will be happily typing away in "no time."
Keyboard Playground
http://freeonlinetypinggames.com
Lots of keyboarding activities to choose from.
Keyboarding Practice
http://www.davis.k12.ut.us/cjh/appliedtech/Business/Keyboarding/Index.html
A series of 17 drills to help you improve your keyboarding technique and speed; there is also a printable version of the drills in PDF format.
Keyboarding Questions
http://www.crews.org/curriculum/ex/compsci/keyboarding/questions.htm
Everything you ever wanted to know about the keyboard!
NEW! Keyboarding Resources
http://jeffcoweb.jeffco.k12.co.us/isu/itech/keybo/keydx.htm#Links%20to%20Family%20or%20Grade%20Level
This site offers a number of printable resources and links to support keyboarding.
Krazy Keyboarding for Kids
http://webinstituteforteachers.org/~gammakeys/Lesson/Lesson1.htm
Sixteen lessons plus review are offered at this site, which is a little more text heavy and would require parent guidance for younger children and dedicated interest from older students. (Advanced)
Laser Limbo
http://www.play4traffic.com/game.php
How fast can you type? After you press start, words will appear on your screen. Type the letters from that word by using your keyboard before it hits the laser. Every correct typed word will give you one point. If you miss one word you will lose one life. After you typed 10 words correct, the speed of words will increase one level, and will be harder to type. The score is depending on your speed of typing. Have Fun! (Advanced)
Nimble Fingers
http://www.nimblefingers.com
Download the keyboarding activities or work online.
Online Bubbles Game
http://www.typingmaster.com/individuals/bubbles.asp
Play Online Bubbles and Typing Master Games, free. Tip: if the bubbles activity does not allow you to type, try clicking inside the window.
Outer Space Fleet Commander
http://www.freetypinggame.net/play2.asp
Outer space letter aliens are stopping your ships from flying through the galaxy. Type the words or group of letters before they run into your ships.
NEW! Power Typing
http://www.powertyping.com
Choose either Qwerty or Dvorak keyboards, select the lesson, and then start. Individual goals can be set for WPM and once the exercise is completed, results are provided. Look below the exercise and choose a wpm song and type a lesson to the song's rhythm.
Save the Sailboat Race
http://www.freetypinggame.net/play1.asp
Falling letters are ruining the sailboat race. Type the words or groups of letters before they run into the boats. Have fun!
Touch Typing
http://www.sense-lang.org/typing
Free Program that lets you exercise and learn Touch Typing. This site lets you practice real words by copying a text from anywhere (sites, word processor, etc.) and paste text inside the text box by clicking the right mouse button and selecting "paste".
Type Me
http://funschool.kaboose.com/fun-blaster/games/game_type_me.html
Type the letters you see falling before they hit the bottom of the screen. Choose Easy, Medium, or Hard.
Type Online
http://www.typeonline.co.uk/lesson1.html
This is a well-organized site and offers a simple and clean interface for children to practice their keyboarding skills. There are six different lessons with ten activities in each and letters are highlighted as you work across the line. Speed and errors are provided after each activity and you are even provided with what the exact errors that were made.
Typer Shark
http://games.yahoo.com/games/downloads/tps.html
Type the words on the sharks before they reach you, the diver. This is a keyboarding game that needs to be downloaded (which I did and spent quite a long time working through the different levels) or you can play TyperShark basic. Both are worthwhile exploring and will engage Keyboarders. (Advanced)
Typing ABCs
http://teachingtreasures.com.au/k-3only/alphabet.htm
Practice typing the letters of the alphabet. (For beginning keyboarders)
Typing Exercise
http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/typing/index.htm
This webpage gives you quick, useful practice in typing. Type the red letter shown. When you have finished the letter or word, another appears immediately, so type that. At the end of the go, you will be told how many you have typed. Try again, and see if you can improve. If you make a mistake, you will be told so. Type the right letter to remove the message. Make sure that you don't have Caps Lock set! You can select smaller collections of letters, or short words. You can alter the font, the length of go and what colour the letter is.
Typing Test
http://www.computerlab.kids.new.net/typing_test.htm
How many words per minute can you type? Click the Done button after you type to see how you did. (Beginner, Novice, and Advanced Keyboarders)
Typing Tutor
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/rvirga/TypingTutor.html
This web site helps improve typing skills by playing a simple game: characters are falling down the screen; you have to stop them before they reach the ground by pressing the corresponding key on the keyboard. You can use the lesson plan window do select which keys you want to practice with (NB: changing the keys in the lesson plan changes the keyset of the next game, not the one, if any, that's already in progress). At the end of each "game" you can look at the Performance evaluation window to see how well you have done, and to receive advice on what to do next.
Typing Tutor Game
http://www.scugog-net.com/room108/typing/introtype.html
This is an excellent website for practicing new keys taught. Be patient while it loads.
Want a Challenge? Try Keyboarding With Boxers!
No 1-2 punch here! Grab a pair of fun, roomy boxer shorts and slip them over your keyboard. How well can you type with the keys hidden from view? Practice at home.
|
© 2005 Worthwhile Web Sites for Learning
