The need for speed and accuracy at the keyboard is becoming ever more necessary in our educational environment. While the youth of today can text with two thumbs at supersonic speeds, they continue to pick away at the computer keyboard when typing an essay or preparing a presentation. Our fourth and fifth grades are making a conscious, and conscientious, effort to work on keyboarding skills by emphasizing Type to Learn as a key technology activity during the first four-to-six weeks of school. Here are a couple of links that can help you at home, where you do not have access to the school's keyboarding program.
You are presented with a paragraph to type. The program checks your accuracy and speed over the time you select in the timing button - defaults to one minute. You also get to select a subject. At the end of the testing time, your words per minute rate is displayed. Write this number down so that you can monitor your improvement.
To practice your typing, go to:
http://www.typing-lessons.org/preliminaries_1.html
The website explains how the lessons are organized and your responsibilities. You should read the material with each practice session. This site is not a game and does not have a lot of flash or noise. However, it does have keyboarding lessons that will help you improve your typing skills.
