When I was about high school age (before personal computers) my prescient mother insisted that I learn how to type. I took classes to learn touch typing. It was one of the best skills I ever learned. I could type my own term papers, fill in forms and construct a resume by myself.
Now that almost everyone has a computer, and at a very early age, how do kids learn the skill? Are they self-taught, are there classes, are there methods? If there are classes, at what age do classes typically start? Anyone with a computer needs the skill. How does it work these days? Is the skill like a language and does that mean that if you are immersed at an early age it just comes naturally and the older you get the more difficult it is to develop the skill?
Well, speaking as someone who was a young teenager when the Internet was really starting to take off, I just learned how to type naturally through long hours of IMing my friends. (Disclaimer: I was taught the correct placement of fingers on the keyboard in elementary school through learn-to-type programs on the Apple IIe, but I never gained any fluency until years later.)
They don’t; they just do it. I am 39 yet I started using computers when I was 8 so I was an early example. I can type extremely quickly but I don’t know how I do it and it certainly isn’t touch-typing with home key focus. It isn’t the proper way but it works. The method is best described as hunt and peck until you can build up great speed with unconscious modifications to the same overall technique. All young kids around here at least have no knowledge of traditional typing skills but many of them are really fast including my own kids. I have been tested at over 70 WPM using my technique but that isn’t a valuable skill these days. My IT coworkers can barely type at all considering some of the messages I get through instant messaging.
I’d suspect that most people using the computer are not copying text but composing as they go; therefore, I’d say they are probably looking at their fingers as they type. Through much use – much more than kids formerly would have had they’ve learned where all the keys are and can type very quickly, but are not using all fingers to type with.
Yep, as pointed out above they learn it like we learned to play baseball, they watch their older brothers and sisters, friends, and kids at school and just sort of pick it up.
They have computers at home and school and they can’t wait to show each other the cool new thing they found on you tube or whatever else they do these days. To them it’s like using the toilet, it’s weird of you not to know how to.
I have kids in second grade and they already type better than I did in highshool.
Back in 2000, I was in the 8th grade. We had some experience with typing, the weekly trips to the computer lab and in our English class we had these miniature computers. We typed out on the mini-computers (not mini as in small and sleek, but rather big clunky things with screens that could only show one sentence at a time) and then uploaded what we wrote to a normal computer.
It was required that each student take a keyboarding class. We had really old macs with the blue screens and just typed sentences and learned about home row. That’s it. Extremely boring and the teacher wasn’t too happy when I figured out how to cut and paste sentences.
I was also required to take another typing class my junior year of high school in 2003. This one was much more updated, teaching students the basics of word, excel, powerpoint, and paint. Since I have been around computers most of my life, the class was a breeze. I think people on this board take typing for granted; you would have been amazed at the students who were completely unskilled with typing.
My daughter started learning how, in the proper technique, last year in third grade. They are in the computer lab with some typing program once a week. Although I know they do other stuff in the lab, too.
I learned to type on an IBM XT in middle school. This would have been in the early 1990’s. This was in a separate class - I don’t recall it being required. As far as I am aware there was no internet connection anywhere in the school - if there was one, I was never allowed to use it. Somehow we all got along with no email, no IM, and no Wikipedia.
My eldest daughter bought a PC for college & uni work when she was 16 and was aware that her typing was slow and inaccurate (like mine) so took a touch typing course at an evening class.
I don’t know how many words she can type a minute but it is impressive to watch her.
The other kids just picked it up as they went along as computers were becoming popular in schools by then and we always had at least one at home. They can type almost as fast as the eldest daughter although only my eldest daughter and son needs the skills for work. University librarian and microbiologist/toxicologist respectively.
From my observation of quite a few people [del]typing[/del] keyboarding in English and Korean, I’d have to say the answer is: poorly. I don’t get it. There are programs available, even good free programs, to teach efficient keyboarding.
Well for me, it’s primarily a question of discipline. I used such a program, and then kind of slowly stopped over time, so I never developed any “fluency” in typing. Which I have to admit I regret nowadays. maybe in the future when I have some free time, I will take class. My sister did take a typing class in high school, and now she can type like a dream.
My problem is that I try to type too fast for my skill level. As far as I know, I use all the right fingers, but what happens is that everything comes out misspelled. Before the red squiggles came around, this meant that my typing was full of errors. (There are of course, still errors that I don’t catch.) Also, I only use the left shift key, which I understand to be a no-no.
“Keyboarding.” Huh. I’m surprised I’ve never heard of it, but I don’t have kids in school. When did this start replacing “typing” as the preferred term for the skill?
My kids are in 1st-2nd grade now, but they started taking computer class once a week in kindergarten and the first thing they practice is finding the keys on the keyboard. I don’t think they teach anything like touch-typing, though. So glad I took that in high school.
