Discussion on:

Teach our kids to touch-type!

Are you sure about this: Typing is an over-rated subject that has taken way too much space in a tech support website. So I'll add a few comments of my own. First, I'm a self taught typer. I never took any class on typing and currently am using the touch-typing method, (but I have to look at my hands). I utilized my time in school to expand my mind, not my hand speed. I have written a 30 page, single spaced, research paper in one sitting that was the rave in class. Yep folks, I finished the paper in my head before word one hit any media. It's this mind disipline that will help my companies productivity, not how fast I can type. How well thought out our ideas, projects, memos, letters, and programs determine how well our departmentsperform, not how fast we get them to media. Have your child take courses like Finance, English Lit, History, and others that will challenge his/her mind and cause them to write many papers. Typing will come as a side-effect and their time will have been better utilized.

Mel needs to take a chill pill. While his point that what you type is more important than how fast you type is well taken, learning to type makes one learn correct spelling and grammar--areas in which Mel could stand some improvement.

Keyboarding techniques: I'm a developer and I don't use any of the "keyboarding" techniques available today. Maybe because when I was in high school (more than 20 years ago) PC's were not popular and a mainframe terminal was not so interesting.
I agree with the fact that our kids need to be taught some techniques but I don't believe this is the real issue. The real issue is that they're not taught to WRITE anymore. We used to have real caligraphy lessons that helped us form our writing so it would be a personal way of communication (something like "this is John writing"). This is not happening anymore and I don't think that this is good. Yes it would be nice if they could type faster and more accurate but I do believe that "typing technology" will evolve so we could type the way we feel not the way the keyboards are designed.

Education today: Typing is only part of the problem. Good spelling and grammar are also in short supply. An example of that can be seen in TechRepublics' forums and comments posted. As parents, we need to carefully watch over everything that the children are doing in their schoolwork and question everything: the students, the teachers, the school system, the curriculum, and our commitment to our childrens' futures. No one ever said being a parent would be an easy responsibility.

I am in IT, and I Love it.
My Grandson is seven now, and has been touch typing since he was four.

The problem I have with keyboarding is, why they are not teaching the touch along with keyboarding.

Most parents would presume it would be the same and not have any idea their child did not know how to touch type.

I read the reply a gentleman sent to you about only using four fingers and typing 60 words. My question is, just how much faster and productive would he be, if he used all ofhis fingers,(six extra helpers), no hunt and peck.

Thank You for listenting,
OWLATNIGHT

I've been reading these columns for some time now, although not so much lately, as I've been busy. The quality of spelling and grammar in these discussions is not what it could be. As an example, someone used 'accurate' a few comments back when theymeant 'accurately'. I was never taught to type at school (in the 60's and early 70's), and even now use only a couple of fingers most of the time. I look at both the keyboard and the screen in turn, and check what I have written.

I think maybe this 'touch-typing' versus 'hunt-and-peck' argument is a bit of a red herring. What is the point of being able to type rubbish faster?

Kids Learning to type: As a 14 year IT professional & Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) sufferer I disagree with all kids learning how to "touch type."

The more important aspects that kids need to learn are proper posture, keyboard & monitor setup, as well as ergonomic tools and training. Now that kids are starting to use computers and keyboards at a much younger age, there has been a noticeable increase in younger RSI sufferers, according to "It's Not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome" by Damany & Bellis. The "old-fashioned" touch type method causes many un-natural hand extensions and can lead to problems. Many doctors and physical therapists actually encourage the hunt and peck method because it encourages full arm movement, thus reducing the repetitive finger/hand movements that over time can cause problems.

While I myself did have typing class in high school, I have found that I've needed to re-train myself, and have started using a slpit-keyboard with no wrist rest and a touchpad in place of a mouse. These changes have helped allow me to continue working.

Thanks for the opportunity to voice my opinion.

Bingo!: I couldn't have said it better! Good typing skills are simply essential for computer interactions. Yes, there are also other important skills, but that doesn't diminish the need for typing. If you don't currently know how to type, learn.It really is that important.

Typing skills: I recently left my position as an IT Support Tech to work at home and be with my kids. While working help desk for two years, I saw so many people that couldn't type. It was very sad.

Technology moves fast, whether you work directly in it or not. I believe that you have to be quick on your feet and think fast in todays society. How can you put down in words what you are thinking when it takes you forever to get a few words down using a keyboard???

My kids will learn typing, even if I have to teach them myself!

Touch typing, yes! Writing skills, yes!: As a twenty-something raised by a business education professor-father & an english teacher-mother, I can only say "YES!!!" to both touch typing and writing as necessary skills for the workplace of today. I learned to touch type in sixth grade and currently type at approximately 80-90 wpm. This shortens the length of time I need to accomplish many things in my day (I develop CD-ROM based CBT). However, I find that writing skills are equally important,because expressing a thought or question clearly and coherently also saves time.

Communication skills in general are necessary: Typing was perhaps one of the most useful courses I ever took. At least it is a skill I use every day! Other skills that desperately need to be revived in our schools are handwriting, spelling and grammar. I am appalled at some of the documents I have to read and at times am unable to decipher the handwritten notes that accompany them. It makes me wonder how some of my recent hires made it through college a mere five years after I did with sucha diminished communications skill set. Did schools stop teaching people how to write a proper sentence? Or how to spell? The lack of basic grammar skills amaze me. Some days I feel more like an English teacher than an IT manager.

Teaching typing to kids - essential: Teaching touch typing has to be considered essential for kids. I have
worked in the IT business for 23 years and never took the time to learn how
to touch type. I am pretty fast on a keyboard (thanks to keying in all
those COBOL programs as a young programmer) but I am not a touch typist. I
currently make a living providing IS&T management services to different
companies which involves me in lots of e/mail and report writing and find my
lack of touch typing skills a disadvantage. Almost all of my staff can
touch type and I would consider making it a pre-requisite for employment in
an IT role.

I have two young children and recently switched on' to the fact that there
are two important lessons to teach them about computing. The first, and one
I have known for a long time, is to stand then beside the machine, show them
where the ON/OFF switch is and they will discover the rest by a process of
osmosis. Kids have this skill and ability because they do not have the
preconceptions and hence barriers that most adults have. The second, just
recently swicthed on to, is teach them touch typing. I bought them a copy
of Mavis Beacon teaches typing and am trying to get them to see the value of
spending time on learning this most basic but most useful skill. I haven't
succeeded yet but have started to use it myself and find the progress and
difference it makes to my typing amazing.

So I guess the message is - Don't teachkids about computers but give them
the basic skills (i.e. Typing, where the ON/OFF switch is and an open mind)
to get the best out of them. You will then find that the use they make of
computers is only limited by their imagination.

Keyboarding vs. Algebra: When the schools are faced with graduating seniors who can't read, spell, speak, or mathematically solve for X, keyboarding falls pretty far down the list. While I agree it is a very valuable tool, we must master the basicsfirst. The HR person will never find out the typing skills because there were so many written and verbal errors in the employment application and interview.

Typing skills as important as PC skills: I rate typing skills just under PC skills. I can't count how many times I have waited for people who were slow or bad typist. At the library I wait for people who are hunt/pecking at the PC-based card cataloges. At the store I wait for clerks who can't type on the store's PC-based POS system. I watch a car mechanic peck away, SLOWLY, at a PC terminal that was hooked up to my car for testing smog immissions and also diagnostics. Typing has nothing todo with a job in the IT industry. You need it for life in general!

Touch-Typing: 5-24-00
TO: Jeff Davis
I totally agree schools should teach touch typing - and the younger - the better. My mother tought me to type when I was 10. What a difference in the turned in homework! I'm in my 40's now and can type as fast as 120 wpm and average around 85 wpm. Thanks to Mom! I introduced my 13 year old son to the computer/keyboard when he was 4. In 1 year he was able to use Windows properly, print, exit the computer all unattended. He is in 7th grade now and is called on by the teachers for computer help. I'm behind you all the way!!

Lois Luca
lpluca@att.com

Touch Typing = A Must!: I had to get a note from my mother to our principal to be able to take typing class in the late 60's because I was in a college-prep curriculm. Only people on the general business curriculum could take typing classes at thattime. As an IT professional, I spend my entire day typing! I can type with my eyes closed. During long days of typing, you occasionally need to close your eyes. I agree that touch typing is a general skill all people need to have to be able to interface with today's and tomorrow's technology in all aspects of life as others have mentioned. It makes me ache when I see computer science majors hunting and pecking in our computer labs. How will they ever get enough done when they get out intothe world of IT?!?

Colleen Andrews, Sr. Info Processing Consultant & Computer Lab Manager
UWSP

Continuing a trend: I'm disappointed but not surprised that touch-typing is not widely taught in schools today. This seems to be a continuation of a trend in education. A trend that replaces tried and true methods of teaching basic skills with newand "better" methods. I've read most of the comments posted here and would have to agree with many of them. Students do need to learn to think, write, read, calculate, etc. However, they also need to acquire the basic skills that provide a foundation for the most difficult "job" they will ever face--LIFE. With the proliferation of computer technology, typing has become one of those basic skills along with reading, writing, and basic math. I applaud those who have done well in spite of not knowing how to type. Some people will succeed regardless of the obstacles placed in their way. Others have other obstacles to overcome and need a good foundation from which to build. Let's make sure they get that foundation.

Teach Our Kids to Touch Type: Touch typing is nice on a type writer, but
there is a problem when the typing is done
on a computer keyboard. In my experience
a fast typist can type faster than the scan
rate of the keys on the keyboard itself.Also there are limits to the input speed of
some word processors, and if you are working
on a terminal over a network, that can have
limits as well. Those limits usually show up
as dropped characters.
I myself use a hunt and peck scheme,which drove one supervisor up a wall. That is until a test of me using my favorite editor and another employee who touch-typed. The test came out a draw. Partly because touch typing at speed does not allow for error correction.
Assuming that the problem of scan speed, word processor, and network speed limits can be overcome, I would consider touch typing. Though I would prefer a Dvorak keyboard.
Crockett Ellis, Jr.

Touch Typing Skills: As a technology teacher, I stress highly that all students learn touch typing. I start showing first graders where the keys are located on the keyboard. By third grade, students are taught the correct placement of the fingers and all the keystrokes. By the time the students finish grade school, they can type anywhere from 25-70 words per minute using touch typing.

Teaching students to touch type: As a woman engineer, I have long maintained that all girls should know how to type *but should never tell anyone they can do it*.

Typing is less of an asset if you are the only one around who can do it, and get stuck with the boring clerical tasks while other team members do 'active' tasks; or if you are pressured to do large typing jobs for friends.

Touch typing - YES!: I took Personal Typing in high school just so I could type my own papers there and in college. In the mid 60's I enlisted in the Air Force. There I was trained as a computer programmer. Touch typing was a great asset when I sat at an 029 and keypunched (when did you last see that word) my own souce decks (whassat?) and patches while others waited for days to get their's. Then came terminals. Then P/C's. It has been one wild ride, but touch typing remains a very necessary skill. As an I.T. professional, I find it much more usefull than biology.

Touch Typing: You are right on the money (or the keyboard) about the need to touch type among IT professionals.
I have used Mario Teaches Typing to teach my children how to type correctly. (I am not sure of availability any longer, but it is definately worth trying to locate)
To advance the characters, running, jumping, capturing coins, etc. You must type the appropriate key. (Of course, you have to watch the monitor, or you don't know which key to press)
Hands appear at the bottom of thescreen with the appropriate finger highlighted.
It's fun, I still like to do it, just to see what my score will be!

Teaching touch-typing: The most valuable thing I learned in high school (in the 60's) was typing! I worked as a word processor in the 70's and now I am a computer programmer (since 1985). I can always type faster than I can handwrite (and much more legibly too). In the computer age, anyone without typing skills is truly at a disadvantage! By the way, learn to spell correctly, use correct grammar, and express your ideas clearly.

teach typing: Anything that can make children smarter and give them an "edge" is well worth the time of the teacher and the school system. I would think that school systems would be eager to give a relatively "easy" course to students. It is annoying that some school attitudes are to teach-down to the lowest common denominator, rather than to challenge and truly educate.

Touch typing skills - YES!: On Jun 2 2000 12:44PM, psmith@co.palm-beach.fl.us wrote:

"I took Personal Typing in high school just so I could type my own papers there and in college. In the mid 60's I enlisted in the Air Force. There I was trained as a computer programmer. Touch typing was a great asset when I sat at an 029 and keypunched (when did you last see that word) my own souce decks (whassat?) and patches while others waited for days to get their's. Then came terminals. Then P/C's. It has been one wild ride, but touch typing remains a very necessary skill. As an I.T. professional, I find it much more usefull than biology."

My goodness! You could substitute my name in this comment in place of psmith. Just like psmith, I took a semester of typing in high school (early 60's), reaching a speed of about 30 WPM. I also enlisted in the Air Force in the mid-60's, where I was trained as a computer programmer. I know what it is to sit at an 029 keypunch and punch my own program decks. I have now been an IT professional for about 32 years, and I have never regretted my typing class in high school. I consider typing to be a very valuable skill for anyone to learn. I also agree with several of the comments that I have seen posted here regarding the appalling lack of English language skills (grammar and spelling) that has been allowed to develop over the past few decades. All of these deficiencies in today's educational programs must be remedied to equip our children for success in the highly technical world of today and tomorrow.

Teaching Typing: I wish I had learned to type in High School. It would help me so much now. I work with several people who can touch type and they smoke me every time. I'm all for it... typing should be a class taught to all kids.

Typing skills: Basically it comes down to those who know how to type think it is valuable and those who don't know how to type will trivialize it. But from a trainers point of view, those who can not type really slow the whole class down. Everyonewho can type are sitting around waiting those hunters and ******* who are working twice as hard.

Typing skills in classrooms: Basically it comes down to those who know how to type think it is valuable and those who don't know how to type will trivialize it. But from a trainers point of view, those who can not type really slow the whole class down. Everyone who can type are sitting around waiting those hunters and ******* who are working twice as hard.

touch typing in schools: I definitely think that teaching touch typing should be a requirement in schools. I only took typing as a filler course, but it has turned out to be one of the most useful skills I've learned in my whole life. It made college easier, has added to my worth as an employee, augmented my income at times, and made getting into the IT biz tremendously rewarding since I can concentrate on learning the theory and applications without having to worry about interfacing with the equipment. Schools need to go back and review what they're teaching. All the computers in the world aren't going to help us if the kids who are our future can't read or type.
Deanna Collison

Touch typing: I took touch-typing in my private high school. Hated it at the time. Now, although I occasionally look at the keyboard, it's just done to ensure that my fingers are placed correctly.

Regarding some of the other comments, yes, touch typing should be a prerequisite in order to graduate from high school. But, at the same time, Reading, Writing and Math (of various types) is now a general prereq. Think for a moment, how many of you would hire a high school graduate who just knew how to type.


Sean M. Reed
Computer Specialist: Web Programmer
PVAMC
Portland, Oregon

Teaching Kids to Touch Type: How I agree that kids should be taught to touch-type. I have been typing for years and whenever I see young people hunting and pecking, it really seems a shame. I taught mature aged students touch-typing a while ago and they really found it hard - if they had learnt when they were young it would have been much easier for them. The older a person is, the more difficult it is to learn. Teach kids!

Keyboarding Curriculum: The schools I have worked for teach keyboarding. And that means typing without looking at your hands or the keyboard. Some teachers go as far as covering the keyboard with a wooden shelf. In fact, we started the keyboardingcurriculum in 2nd grade and expect 6th graders to be able to type better than 30 wpm as part of their graduation requirements. However, when they get to the high school, they revert to the hunt and peck method. You can lead a horse to water...

Teaching touch-typing: In my 20+ years of experience in the IT field, I have seen many highly skilled people. The most productive have been those who have learned to touch-type. Even though editing is not eliminated, it is simply the fastest and most accurate way to get information into the computer. There is nothing more frustrating than waiting for someone to 'hunt-and-peck'. Touch-typing doesn't take long to master, takes no special aptitude, and is a skill that should be promoted to all students.

Keyboarding vs touch typing: I read with interest your article about how people need touch typing skills.

I would agree insofar as that if not being able to type keeps people from using technology then they need to learn that skill to move forward in their lives.

However, as I am typing in this message with a couple fingers from each hand, I have to disagree that it is some kind of absolute necessity to ebale to touch type in particular.

The reason I "hunt and peck", is the fact that Itend to be thinking about what I am going to type as I am typing it in. I cannot organise my sentences at 90 words a minute in my head, so why do I need to type them in that fast?

I can figure out what I want to say at about the same speed as I type, so it seems like a good match to me, even if it is only about 45 words a minute. If I was copying text given to me on paper, that would be different.

Greg
Tx.

I could type when I took typing in high school--they wouldn't let me have that many study halls! However, I looked at the keys, not because I didn't know where the letters are, but I didn't trust my fingers to get there! IOW, I looked even at the blank keyboard.

Not anymore! I've been clocked at 93 wpm transcribing, and 45-50 when composing.

And I've met the exception to the rule, too! A man who uses two fingers on each hand, watches the keys like a hawk, at clocks 128 wpm! Go figure.

I agree with your article, but I felt there was something missing. Since learning to touch type is so important, where can we find the resources to teach us? What are some good programs to use, or good online classes to take? Most of us can't go back to high school, but we can take advantage of online resources.

My daughter learned to type talking on AIM. One of the rules were-> she had to type without looking. She does about 120 per minute now.
She is talking to her friends and learning something at the same time.

I play games like moving the keyboard under something to see how she does. Be creative...it isn't the schools job to teach our kids everything.