Keyboarding survey

In the early mists of time when I was a high school sophomore, I took a one semester course called "Personal Typing." The room held about two dozen manual typewriters and four electric models. I can still hear the chant "aaa, lll, kkk, ddd." I topped out at 32 wpm. We had fun "accidentally" typing naughty words.

I am grateful to this day for that class.

The debate about when (or if) to teach keyboading has been background noise in education for about 30 years. I thought it might interesting to ask the kids for their view on the topic so last month I sent an invitation to all 8th and 9th graders to complete the following survey. 

While only about 10% of students to whom the invitation was sent responded, the results are interesting.


Here are the findings:

We received 118 responses (12% response rate), fairly equally divided between 8th and 9th graders.

I would like to take lessons or a class to improve my keyboarding skills:

I've received good information on how to hold my hands ....

I'd be curious to know if teachers and parents agree with this relatively high level of confidence students have in their own skills. I am probably the most concerned about half our kids saying they haven't received any instruction (or have forgotten they received it) about healthy keyboard use.

Personally, I would drop cursive writing instruction and replace it with keyboarding instruction taught by the classroom teacher, with the primary emphasis being on good ergonomics. 

Oh, that's right - our computer labs are now in constant use for testing. I forgot there for a second.

For what it's worth.

From a blog comment by Donna Adams:

I also want to add a comment about your previous post, which was about keyboarding. In my district we decided to include keyboarding standards and benchmarks in our new TILS (Technology & Information Literacy Standards) because it's still the principal means of information input when using computers, since voice recognition and other methods are not yet accurate enough. We were also finding that students who do not have access to computers at home on which to learn and practice keyboarding on their own were falling behind their peers, creating an equity issue and reinforcing the importance of including it in our curriculum in grades 3 through 6. Interestingly, I recently came across three articles that include keyboarding among "essential skills":
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/08/11/ten-skills-every-student-should-learn/
http://www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&EntryId=3776
http://staffroomhq.com/2012/01/23/10-essential-tech-skills-students-need-to-know/

 Donna A.

Image source: http://walyou.com/old-manual-typewriter-robot-art-sculptures/

The future is comprised of "aha" moments

A Blue Skunk reader named Josh commented on this post*:

Doug,

 After reading and reflecting on your post I've realized (I should say re-realized) several things.

1.  Educational Technology is a constantly evolving field.
2.  Education is a constantly evolving field.
3.  Educators are not always constantly evolving.

Me included. Over the past several months I have been forced to immerse myself in the field of Educational Technology. It's been hard and saddening. I'm realizing just how much of an ancient curmudgeon I am. And I've only been teaching for 10 years. How can this be? Just a few years ago I thought I was on the cutting edge. I recently read one of Doug Johnson's (the author of The Blue Skunk Blog) old posts from May 2010. The blog was titled "Top Ten Social Media Competencies for Teachers." With my recent "expertise" in Educational Technology, I've modified this list to 5 ideas (or questions) that all educators, regardless of their experience or level of expertise with technology, need to think about NOW!

1. In most districts, students have internet access and a school-based e-mail address. Should they also have a twitter, slideshare, and youtube account for school use? Should they also have a school blog?
2. Is it the schools job (think major school-wide initiative) to get students to use Web 2.0 technology applications, or should it be up to the individual classroom teacher?
3. Alll students should have a PLN (period)! They should use this as frequently as they use their e-mail.
4. Should we teach students the intricacies of having an on-line identity and the long term aspects of reputation management? What course do we do this in?
5. Should all teachers and students be responsible for creating and following a personal learning plan to stay up-to-date on emerging technologies?

These ideas (questions) could transform the K-12 school experience. How do we, as educators and administrators, make this happen?

I loved Josh's riff on the post. Once again, the comments prove to be better than the original post.

Sci-fi author William Gibson wrote, "The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed." To me the "future" is comprised of new understandings, new realizations, new acceptances. The future happens one person, one epiphany at a time. Welcome to the future, Josh. 

Oh, and there is nothing wrong with being a curmudgeon - even an ancient one.

 * I got a lot of Twitter action on this old post recently. My guess is that some poor souls taking a class have it as an assigned reading.

The book arrived

When I got home yesterday evening, a long-anticipated box of books was sitting on the doorstep. Yes, The Classroom Teacher's Technology Survival Guide shipped. (Some reviews and endorsements here.)

In my expert opinion, everyone should buy a personal copy, especially younger educators. In only a few short years, you all will be supporting me through government programs anyway. If you buy this book, you are still supporting me but at least you are getting something in return -  firestarter, short table leg prop, emergency bathroom tissue, or business expense tax write-off. Oh, and maybe an idea or two about using technology with kids.

My special thanks to all who read excerpts on the Blue Skunk and offered suggestions.