Please give tips about keyboarding in class.
Hi!
Start by emphasizing and regularly checking as students develop the basic techniques of good posture, correct arm position, and proper hand placement
Regards,
The Typesy Team
Hello!
As presented in key national standards, keyboarding is deemed an essential skill. As the world continues to rely more heavily on technology, the ability to type has become a necessary skill for any and all entering the 21st-century workforce. Once accomplished, the ability to touch type will yield positive results for students for the rest of their lives and is therefore decidedly worth dedicating time to.
Proper typing requires the strengthening of muscle memory which is best achieved through repetition. Therefore, teaching needs to involve repeating many skills-building lessons over time. It is advisable to first introduce structured keyboarding lessons before the middle school years. That way, students have developed the literacy and motor function skills needed but have not yet had too much time to develop bad typing habits.
When teaching touch typing, begin by teaching students finger positions. Each finger has assigned letters based on the positioning of the hand over the keyboard. The middle row on a QWERTY keyboard will serve as the home row, the starting position for each finger. Students should first learn to become comfortable with this starting position which is made easier on many keyboards with a raised ridge on the F and J keys. These markers indicate where the index fingers should be placed on the home row, so students can feel their way back to home row rather than needing to look at the keyboard directly. When typing, each finger has an assigned zone of keys, each requiring a movement of one or two keys away from home.
No matter what level of typing mastery a student has, the most important piece of learning touch typing is consistency and repetition. Touch typing relies on developing the muscle memory needed for typing without looking at the keys. After enough practice, all students will be moving their fingers across the keys instinctively.
Regards,
Typesy Team