Typo Time
By blog on Dec 10, 2007 in 2) Useful n Interesting
The Hobbyhorse I am riding at the moment is a simple one: Why, when we are encouraged, or even required, to teach everything from French to Mandarin Chinese, is there no structured requirement to teach typing?
In an age when almost everyone uses a keyboard, often frequently, either at work or in leisure activities, it is one of the most useful skills anyone could acquire. I am two finger stumbling through writing this post! Oh to be able to type at great accurate speed!
QWERTY Keyboards
The common layout of keyboards that almost all computers come with, known as QWERTY, is actually inefficient, causes fatigue as you type and knots my digits big time!
A more ideal layout (apparently!) is known as the Dvorak layout. It “places keys in positions to improve efficiency in typing to almost double the current speed”, but it’s hardly been adopted at all, and I for one, am not going to even try to change over. I have only just worked out where the keys are on THIS koybiurd!!
So why did we even use a QWERTY layout in the first place?
The QWERTY layout was designed so that successive keystrokes on old typewriters would slow down typing and alternate between sides of the keyboard so as to avoid jams in the metal arms.
O.K. So we’re stuck with it. Let’s help children make the best of it by giving them some guidance.
Here are a few potentially useful sites:
Touch typing Powertyping and the great BBC site, Dance Mat Typing, (don’t let the name put you off. It’ll get your fingers wiggling, not your knees!)
A couple of good programs out there too: Busy Fingers and the excellent 2Type for starters.
I also love Keyboard Crazy (and the wacky guys that developed it).
Keyboard Crazy is a plastic mock-computer keyboard with variable interchangeable inlays. The original inlay displays the keyboard letters and a blank inlay is provided for pupils to use once they have mastered where the keys go. The kit also includes a pack of coloured letter tiles that pupils place in the right position on the inlay during a variety of games-based tasks.
O.K. I can get down off my horse now and try out a few “asdf ;lkj” exercises!
Really, I am like Miss Print from A Load of Rubbish!: “On completing her studies at the Mavis Bacon school of typing Miss Print dived straight into the typing pool ..and sank. She has since resurfaced with great style and when pushed can type 65w.p.m. When shoved she can get up to 65m.p.h. !!!!
There are a lot of things we learn and don’t learn at school. I would see entrepreneurship a more important skill than typing, Chinese more important than French (and I’m a French teacher). I never learned how to type but ended up as a professional copytaker in the Scotsman newspaper because I could go hell for leather – accurately – on a keyboard whose letters had been erased by the finger nails of the ladies who had worked there for years.
Yes, it’s important to type quickly and accurately, but I guess when we only have so many hours other equally vital skills need to have their spot, too.
Ewan McIntosh | Dec 11, 2007 | Reply
Tim,
Your comment on the Dvorak layout and the fact that you are not even going to try it underscore the futility of promoting it. The QWERTY layout has its faults, but it has been taught for years and millions use it. Why change?
On our recent trip to France we were forced to use computers with the AZERTY keyboard (the French equivalent of QWERTY). As you will guess, there are a number of differences. (Surprise! the A and the Z where the Q and the W “should” be.) We found the experience so frustrating that we were forced to retreat to a nearby bistro to recuperate.
Geoffrey R. Staines | Dec 13, 2007 | Reply