Every time I visit a classroom, whether I’m with my son’s 4th grade class or senior secondary students there’s always one thing that strikes me as odd. Students are encouraged, often required, to use a computer and yet they are not taught how to type properly. By the time I see students in senior secondary (years 11-12) I notice that not only can they not type properly but they use computers for a majority of their work. Some students get quite fast with 2-finger typing but it really is not very efficient; they think they’re fast until they see me typing without looking at the keyboard! Ta Da!
Typing is not a difficult skill. However, in my personal experience, learning to type was a tedious and boring exercise….and then all of a sudden, it seemed, I could type and I could type fast AND without having to look at the keyboard. Oh what an advantage!
I think it’s important to teach our kids how to type correctly. Last year I tried various online sites and had varying success with my son but we eventually gave up because it didn’t seem like there was a good progression of learning activities on these sites. Today I found a new site that looks really promising. I did the first couple of lessons and I really enjoyed it; it includes visual, interactive and audio directions. I think my 9 year old son will enjoy it and hopefully it will be the start of him learning a really useful skill.
elketeaches 