The purpose of this blog is to provide teachers with quick and useful tips in order to help students develop good keyboarding habits. The key is to encourage students to engage in short, frequent practice sessions. This will help them develop the muscle memory they need to build fluency. The motto is an old familiar one Catch them being good.
The underlying message here is simple. As teachers, you might want to focus on the following things:
- Sending students a clear and consistent message about the importance of developing good keyboarding habits.
- Monitoring technique and providing students with feedback every time you put them on a computer.
- Encouraging home practice. You can regularly check up on them through a quick and simple report available in Custom Typing. (See handout in the sidebar.)
- Involving parents by asking them to encourage home practice and monitoring those 5-10 minute sessions at home.
Hopefully, you can recognize that it is not necessary, nor is it recommended, to bring students to the lab and ask them to practice keyboarding for the entire lab session. That isn't good for them, not to mention the fact that it is tedious, frustrating and bound to backfire.
It really doesn't take too long to get students on their way to developing good keyboarding skills through short, frequent practice sessions. After that, you can all enjoy the benefits of their learning as they begin to be able to think and type at the same time!
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