Touch-keyboarding before word processing.| Teacher's Manual | Teacher Training Courses | Read the Research |
- Prevent chronic "hunt and peck disease"
- Prepare students to be efficient computer users
- Instill healthful habits
- Coordinate skill development with productive uses of the skill throughout the curriculum
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First Things
First A Teacher's Guide for Integrating Touch-Keyboard Training in the Elementary Classroom * By Gay Wiseman, M. S. in Educational Change and Technology Innovation, Walden University.
*renamed “FingerWings For All Students”, April 2001. | ||
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In
this program, learning to touch-key is presented as a basic literacy skill
crucial to all children of the Information Age. This manual guides the elementary
classroom teacher in establishing routines for training and monitoring students
as they develop effective and healthful touch-keyboarding
technique which they will rely on for writing, thinking and communicating
throughout their schooling and beyond. It centers around a one week "boot
camp" period in which students learn proper posture and fingering for all
the letter and major punctuation keys with the aid of a mnemonic poem. After
students can key the alphabet by touch, speed and accuracy are developed
over time, through frequent use of the skill on appropriate and relevant
writing tasks required for other subject areas. The teacher's role after
the initial boot camp training period consists of planning student keying
tasks suitable to their developing skill levels, and monitoring constantly
for proper technique. Any teacher can teach touch-keyboarding effectively
once he or she understands the crucial technique fundamentals. The manual
includes all necessary teaching materials—lesson plans, transparency
masters, reproducible handouts, assessment tools, parent information, etc.This instructional method was
specifically designed to meet the needs of classroom teachers who have stand-alone
portable keyboards available for regular student use in the classroom.
The program can also be used for training in a computer lab setting, though
true integration of keyboard skill development with other school subject
areas is difficult under lab scheduling constraints.
A newly revised and expanded edition of this manual will be available for purchase after April 28, 2001. Contact:
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How to Teach
Touch Two types of courses are available
to prepare elementary school teachers for teaching touch-keyboarding.
Each 6-hour course fee is $70, which includes the Finger Wings
program manual and all
necessary instructional materials. Register by contacting Gay
Wiseman to confirm scheduling and space availability in the session
of your choice; then send payment by check or school purchase order (made
payable to Gay Wiseman, "Teach Touch") to P.O. Box 255 / Dutch
Flat, CA 95714). |
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These
inservice courses will prepare teachers to implement the Finger Wings program
with their students. The instructional method will be modeled, and the crucial
elements of touch-keyboarding technique will be demonstrated and explained.
Teachers will learn to recognize pitfalls in student technique, and will
learn strategies for helping students overcome them. Physical health problems
related to keyboarding, and the prevention of repetitive stress injuries
will be discussed. The course will also highlight ways in which research
has shown that keyboarding can boost learning in other subject areas. Participants
will generate and share ideas and solutions for the practical implementation
of a successful keyboarding instruction program in their own school circumstances.
One day workshops currently scheduled:
ONLINE courses offered quarterly, conducted via web and email These courses take place over a three week period. The manual will be sent to each registrant on receipt of payment. Participants will use the Web to access course material and will contribute to the discussion via email. Actual participation times will be at the individual's convenience within each unit of the course; each unit will last approximately one week to allow maximum flexibility for each participant. If you have not experienced an online course yet, this one will provide a great opportunity to try it out! No commuting, flexible schedule, and great interaction with colleagues. (AlphaSmart portable keyboards may be borrowed at no cost for a 2-week period during the course.)
Schools or districts may contact Gay Wiseman to discuss onsite staff training possibilities. Courses at your site for groups of 7 to 20 may be scheduled for a single day workshop (6 hours of instruction), or may be conducted in split sessions (2 sessions of 3 hours, or 3 sessions of 2 hours). These courses may be scheduled on Fridays, Saturdays, or Monday through Thursday early mornings.
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| "Keys at Their Fingertips: A
Study Supporting Development of a Resource Package for the Teaching of Touch-Keyboarding
Skills in Elementary Classrooms Equipped with Portable Keyboards" (May 2000).266K;
75 pages. (File is in Acrobat PDF format.)Click
here
to download. |
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| This research project began with an in depth study of the literature on best practices in elementary touch-keyboarding instruction. Next, a survey of elementary classroom teachers was conducted to determine what components they would consider essential in a classroom-based keyboarding curriculum. A focus group discussion was then held via the internet over a three-week period, which "picked the brains" of both keyboarding instruction experts and classroom teachers who already teach keyboarding to their own students. These research methods, combined with the researcher's own six years of experience teaching keyboarding to elementary students, provided the data on which the manual and inservice training courses are based. The program was pilot tested in Spring 2000 by a classroom teacher who had never taught keyboarding before, and who used only this manual (and the included teaching materials) to conduct the initial fingering instruction, and later to incorporate keyboarding throughout her curriculum. The data from the case study of her experience is included in the report.The underlying purpose for researching and building this new, integrated model for keyboarding instruction in the elementary school is made both necessary and possible by recent equipment innovations. Portable keyboards (sometimes called "smart keyboards"or "mini-laptops") have become available in recent years which both permit and necessitate a shift in instructional routines to foster student mastery of touch-keyboarding skills before the development of hard-to-break "hunt and peck" habits. The material produced as a result of this research is intended to serve as a companion piece to increasingly ubiquitous classroom keyboarding tools by providing needed support (resources and training) to elementary classroom teachers who are trying to incorporate their use effectively in the classroom, and to empower their students with a life skill which should be considered a fundamental literacy skill for 21st century learners.
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