Why Teaching Keyboarding Is Essential.

Aside from Math, the most useful course I took in highschool was keyboarding.  We used to copy a page out and while it was boring, it also continues to be used in many career fields.  Today, learning to type is much more entertaining with advancements in game technology.  Knowing how to type made university a lot easier when it came to typing out long papers.  Kids these days are much better at using their thumbs to text their friends than I am.  I have to admit I am one of the slowest texters on the planet.  Teaching keyboarding has long since been dropped from the curriculum and I think it's important to find time to bring it back.  

I had my grade 3/4 class use typingclub.com whenever they had free time or I set a 10min timer before our coding sessions.  By the end of the year, many of them were typing at 30-40wpm.  Many students enjoyed the games used in typingclub, however unless you pay for the classroom version they were able to skip ahead before mastering each lesson and you are unable to assign a typing test for speed.  As you can see below, the lessons get organized into a sequential manner but unless you pay they tend to skip ahead when they are not ready.

A better option I will be using in the coming year is typing.com which is a free site that allows you to grade and monitor in realtime exactly what students are working on.  Reports for student improvement and progress accompany engaging games to keep their interest. Typing speed tests are available in 1min,3min, and 5min intervals.

Another great free site to supplement your typing program is typeracer.com
Students are able to compete against their friends or other online opponents.

If you know of any other great sites, please post them in the comment box.  What are your thoughts on teaching keyboarding?