Teaching Keyboarding

1. Teaching Keyboarding by Dr. Diane J. Fisher

2. Definition • Term “keyboarding” replaced “typewriting” in early 1980’s • Learning the keyboard • Key with appropriate fingers • Use correct technique • No regard to formatting • Primary emphasis toward speed and accuracy • Learning the applications for which the keyboard is used

3. Need for Keyboarding Skills • Keyboarding skills • have impact on productivity • Improve post-school employability and earnings • Modify curriculum to compete with other technologies

4. Keyboarding on the Computer • Concentrates on input rather than output • More important skill than ever before • Teach ten-key operation • Use alphabetic keyboarding software • Teach computer terminology

5. Theory: How to Teach Keyboarding • Stimulus-response • Teacher calls out a letter, student emits a stroking response • Association • Correct response is associated with given stimulus • Knowledge of results • Students must know that the response is correct • Temporal contiguity • The closer together the stimulus and response come to one another, the faster learning takes place

6. Theory: How to Teach Keyboarding • Mediation • Activities (called mediators) intervene between perceiving the stimulus and making the response • Vocalization • Letter or word is actually whispered or mentally sounded out • Disappears when students reach 15-20 gwpm • Kinesthesis • Sensations of motion and position in muscles and joints—the basic sense required in the acquisition of psychomotor skills

7. Theory: How to Teach Keyboarding • Differentiation and Generalization • Students must be able to differentiate the response “r” from the response “t”. Students who generalize responses tend to make more errors • Motivation • Crucial component of all instruction

8. Theory: How to Teach Keyboarding • Transfer of Learning • The extent to which performance in one setting contributes to performance in a different setting • By providing stimuli during learning that are identical to the stimuli encountered later, specific transfer of learning is maximized • Negative Transfer • Occurs when a new response is required for a familiar stimulus

9. Theory: How to Teach Keyboarding • Massed Versus Spaced Practice • Massed practice is necessary during beginning stages of instruction, followed by spaced practice at later stages • Students should spend enough time at speed practice to develop sufficient gain before moving to accuracy practice • Learning Curves and Learning Plateaus • Plateaus should be expected on errors, but prolonged plateaus should not exist on speed

10. Keystroking • Involves • Choice of the appropriate finger to make the reach • Direction of the reach • Correct alignment of fingers with the keyboard • Quality of the reach itself

11. Keystroking • Speed of finger movement in making the reach, in striking and releasing they key, and in returning the finger to home-row position • The “feel” of the appropriate motion patterns

12. Methods: How To Develop Keystroking Skills • Teach the alphabetic keyboard as quickly as possible—about 2 weeks • Use meaningful letter sequences • Introduce the keys in whatever order will permit the earliest use of words and sentences for practice (follow the text) • Permit sight keying in the beginning, but encourage students to watch their copy as soon as they are able

13. Methods: How To Develop Keystroking Skills • Use vocalization to develop ballistic stroking • Except during the first few days of keyboard presentation, use extensive, rather than repetitive, practice and vocabulary • Focus first on the development of speed, then accuracy • Focus on speed until substantial improvement has been made before shifting the focus to accuracy; and vice versa

14. Methods: How To Develop Keystroking Skills • Improve accuracy by finding the right speed • Use speed forcing techniques through pacing to develop optimal speed, to develop ballistic stroking, and to break any keyboard watching habit that may persist after several months • When using accuracy drills, try response differentiation drills (i.e., m-n, b-v, i-e, etc. emphasis) and immediate error correction. • Use drills loaded with special features at the time the feature is introduced (tab, shift key, numbers)

15. Methods: How To Develop Keystroking Skills • Use special feature drills at the beginning of class if such time is needed for the accomplishment of administrative tasks • Establish goals for each activity including repetitive practice • Provide realistic, achievable goals for individual students rather than for the group • Develop rhythm by focusing on techniques that encourage the use of optimal speed • Teach appropriate techniques

16. Develop Proper Keyboarding Techniques • Sharp, fluent stroking • Eyes on copy • Feet flat on floor • Fingers curved • Wrists upright • Keyboard at edge of desk • Sit up straight

17. Rate of Presentation • Review all keys learned each day before presenting new keys • After learning the alphabetic keyboard, practice for several days before teaching figures and symbols • Dictate stroke-by-stroke pacing to the earliest practice of each new key

18. Becoming an Expert Typist • Learn to type for long periods of time without hesitation • Hesitations reduce speed and increase errors • To reduce hesitations • Concentrate on copy • Maintain correct reading speed • Reduce number of times you look from copy to machine • Eliminate pauses between strokes

19. Copy Difficulty • Syllabic intensity • = number of syllables divided by number words • Stroke intensity • = number strokes divided by number words • The lower the number, the easier the copy Please have the manager return my call.

20. Reading • Students should read at a speed that matches their keyboarding rate • Pay close attention to sequencing of letters • Poor reading habits result in spelling, punctuation, and paragraphing errors • Correct habits of reading require typist to move eyes smoothly and continuously along lines of copy • Typists read 1 second ahead of fingers • Beginners about 1 letter ahead • Advanced typists about 1 word ahead

21. Evaluation • Must go on constantly • Students receive feedback about the correctness of their responses • Students should not be graded on their performance while learning a task • Keep grading and learning activities separate; assign grades for terminal performance

22. Reliability and Validity • Proficiency upon completion of training is most important • Reliability – the consistency of the measure; can be repeated • Validity – instrument must measure what is intended to be measured • Taking the 3 best timed writings from 20 or 30 timings violates reliability • Use students’ typical performances

23. Measuring Speed • Gross words a minute • Total words divided by total minutes keyed • Correct words a minute • Subtract number of errors from total number of words and divide by minutes keyed • Gross words a minute with an error limit • Total words divided by total minutes keyed with errors listed separately (allow 1 per minute) • Net words a minute • Subtract 10 words for each error from total words and divide by minutes keyed

24. Proofreading • A skill that must be taught • read copy slowly word for word, twice—once for meaning and again for correctness of details • read aloud from original while partner checks for errors in copy (reverse order & repeat for important documents) • Four categories of errors • arrangement, technical information, thought conveyance, and figures, dates, and amounts

25. Evaluating Keyboarding Performance • Purpose • diagnose weaknesses • measure achievement • motivate students • determine grades

26. Evaluating Keyboarding Performance • Methods • subjective – primary method for assessing techniques and work habits • give students a copy of rating scale • objective – knowledge and performance tests • Specify expected student performance and behavior in form of objectives

27. Suggestions • First Semester of Keyboarding • Techniques 30% • Basic skill competencies 40% • Problem and/or production work 20% • Work attitudes and habits 10%

28. Suggestions • Second Semester of Keyboarding • Techniques 10% • Basic skill competencies 40% • Problem and/or production work 40% • Work attitudes and habits 10%

29. Keyboarding Resources • http://www.cwu.edu/~setc/ldtech/docs/Keyboarding_Techniques.pdf • http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech072.shtml • http://www.neisd.net/alphasmart/AS%20Binder/Keyboarding%20Hotlist/keyboarding_hotlist.html • http://www.tcet.unt.edu/START/instruct/general/kb-act.htm

30. Keyboarding Resources • http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/elemkey/suggested.html • http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/midlkey/compapp.html#appa • http://pdf.alphasmart.info/Keyboarding_Activities1.pdf • http://pdf.alphasmart.info/Keyboarding_Activities2.pdf

31. Keyboarding Resources • Parent letter: http://jeffcoweb.jeffco.k12.co.us/isu/itech/keybo/parletter.html • Assessment of keyboarding skills http://jeffcoweb.jeffco.k12.co.us/isu/itech/keybo/technique.html • Self-assessment http://jeffcoweb.jeffco.k12.co.us/isu/itech/keybo/selfeval.html

32. Keyboarding Resources • Hands http://jeffcoweb.jeffco.k12.co.us/isu/itech/keybo/hands2.PDF • Healthy computing http://www.pc.ibm.com/ww/healthycomputing/index.html

33. References • McLean, G. N. (1995). Teaching keyboarding. Little Rock, AR: Delta Pi Epsilon.