Teaching students how to properly type on a keyboard is only
going to become more important in this digital age world. Often times in job
interview they will ask how many words you are able to type a minute and that
plays a factor in the hiring process. ‘Type Fu’ is a program that works with you
to work on your typing speed. “The app also features multiple levels of
difficulty and once you figure out your skill level, you can immediately delve
in your typing tasks. Type Fu automatically detects when you mastered a skill
level and starts providing you with more challenging typing exercise to prepare
you for the next level.” You can be a beginner or even if you took typing
classes before, Type Fu will help you refresh your skills and take them to the
next stage instantly. It is great for all ages and has numerous options for
skill levels and keyboard layouts. You will be able to easily tell from the
pretty charts exactly how much better your typing speed and accuracy become,
and which keys your miss most. It is colorful, it is engaging, it is having fun
while strengthening your typing skills.
Unfortunately, it does cost $9.99 but “educational
institutions and companies can buy multiple licenses with 50% discount through
the Apple Volume Purchase Program and Google Play for Education Program.” The
app does not require recurring payments and constant network connection unlike
online typing tutors. Once you pay for it, it's yours forever.
Ed Tech Team. "Type Fu A Great
Chrome App for Learning Fast Typing ~ Educational Technology and Mobile
Learning." Type Fu A Great Chrome App for Learning Fast Typing ~
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. N.p., 18 June 2015. Web. 22
June 2015.
<http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2015/06/type-fu-great-tool-for-learning-fast-typing.html>.
“Teaching students how to properly type on a keyboard is only going to become more important in this digital age world.” I briefly investigated the Type Fu website (http://type-fu.com/). This program looks really cool. This is the type (pun intended) of thing that computers are amazing at: providing fast, dynamic, and powerful assessment and feedback, while simultaneously allowing for a creative, efficient learning interface. After reading your post, I reflected on my own experiences… I never took a typing class. I learned to type via modeming; pre-www-dot online-ing on various Bulletin Board Systems (BBS - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system) throughout San Diego. I learned to type out of the necessity to keep up with BBS chat rooms. I type reasonably well, but I’m aware that I have certain limitations. If I’m typing while thinking/composing an essay, my typing easily keeps up with my thinking. When typing words that are already in my vocabulary, my typing is reasonably fast. But, if I’m looking at a piece of paper while typing – like I imagine secretaries do all the time – and encounter words I don’t know, I’ve noticed that hit major bottlenecks, and my words-per-minute speed plummets. I’m sure I could benefit from Type Fu!
ReplyDeleteI’m wondering though, what does the future look like? iPads and/or other touch-screen devices have qualitatively-different surfaces compared to a standard tactile keyboard used with a desktop or laptop. One of the reasons why I haven’t acquired a smartphone yet is because I haven’t liked qwerty-based typing on the flat-screen surfaces. As far as kids go… From an early age, will students be using tablets more than laptops and desktops? How will we deal with this as educators? Can you teach formal typing on a tablet? It seems like schools will still need the laptops and desktops also, so kids can use the older keyboards to acquire stand typing. Just a handful of years from now, will Educ. 422 students be reading articles about the obsolescence of typing? I believe that cursive has already been taken out of the Common Core. Several years after that, will be arguing that typing is out; now it’s about teaching children how to talk to Apple’s Siri? Just let Siri take the wheel! Further into the future, will we be talking about dismissing Siri because children will have computer chips in their heads? Now, all you have to do is think the thought, and it’s already uploaded and saved to your Google Drive account? All of our thoughts – immediately on The Cloud. But, I digress… Obviously I’m joking around, but I’m somewhat serious, too.
Thanks for your post Becca. You started with typing, and I respond with computer chips in people’s head! Oh well, it’s my last blog response for this course! ☺
This is still one of my all-time-favorite books, I believe I mentioned it in class in the midst of some group discussion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_(Anderson_novel)