computerdisc-l: Re: Teaching Keyboarding Skills (fwd)

["Patti S. Abraham" <psa1@ra.msstate.edu>]

I thought this was interesting. . .I wonder if we are teaching keyboarding
at a time when they are rebelling about everything.  Wonder what would
happen if they learned earlier??

Dr. Patti S. Abraham psa1@ra.msstate.ed
Professor, Department of Technology and Education
Mississippi State University
Voice: 601-325-2280	FAX: 601-325-7599	Internet: psa1@ra.msstate.edu

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 21:18:55 -0500
From: EDTECH Editor-Beil <edadmin9@mail.h-net.msu.edu>
Reply-To: EDTECH - Educational Technology <EDTECH@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
To: EDTECH@H-NET.MSU.EDU
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.edtech
Subject: Re: Teaching Keyboarding Skills

From: "Karen S. Needles" <knowledgequest@fament.com>

Keyboarding skills should be taught at second and third grade.  Just like
teachers have been promoting the teaching of foreign languages in the
elementary, it is the same with keyboarding.  If students are taught to use
the keyboard appropriately at an early age, using a game type keyboarding
software, they will use the right keys, you will eliminate the pecking and
by the time they get to middle school, they will be typing correctly.
ABC about two months ago had an excellent report on how from the time of
birth to 10 years of age, the electronic motor skills highways are being
formed in the brain.  Doctors said that it was critical that many of the
motor skills be stressed at this time to fully develop those highways.
Keyboarding would fit into this category.
I also read somewhere that students who had had keyboarding at an early age,
also were better at spelling.
Karen Needles
Technology Consultant

>X-From: Amanda Piburn <piburn@sprintmail.com>
>I am updating my skills before returning to elementary teaching after 15
>years of raising children.  I am curious about the research showing
>improved student writing (both in quantity and quality) when computers
>are used.  I have no doubt that kids find it fun to see their writing in
>print.  But if they hunt and peck, I would think the writing would take
>so long that very little would be actually produced. Do many kids really
>know how to type?  Is keyboarding actively taught in elementary
>schools?  (Not where I live!)  Is it worthwhile to have kids spend class
>time working with tutorials like Mavis Beacon to learn to type? (I
>realize that "keyboarding" is the term used now!)  Becoming proficient
>at the keyboard takes a good deal of practice and could eat up a lot of
>class time.  In my area, kids are told to turn in their papers
>typewritten beginning in 6th grade, yet they have never been taught how
>to type.  What do you think of all this?



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