Developmental Keyboarding

This Summer, when I attended a four day workshop to earn the endorsement for Keyboarding, I was disappointed to note how developmentally inappropriate the proscribed activities were for elementary students. The same methods and techniques used for secondary school business classes were shared with elementary teachers. The business education model is for all students to leave the classroom en masse, walk down the hall to the computer lab, and follow a teacher-directed and paced method or else a computer graphics based model.

I have seen one size-fits-all computer labs in the schools where anyone younger than fourth grade will be seen swinging their feet and kicking the wires hanging beneath the desks. The best methods are for students to sit up straight with their backs against the chair and their feet flat on the floor. Mobile labs where the laptop computers or AlphaSmart keyboards are brought into a classroom and placed on student desks allow students of any age to sit with their backs against the chair and feet flat on the floor. In my consulting I have encouraged this classroom model for elementary schools however there are management issues of batteries versus power cords, and Internet access.

I have gone further to suggest that rather than teach nonsense words and letter combinations, that we use spelling or vocabulary words that are  age/grade level appropriate. Rather than starting with the home row and reaching up or curling down to reach the letter keys on adjacent rows, I have suggested moving the hand position to each row and exploring the words that can be created using just the letter keys in each position.

Going deeper into the professional literature on best practices for age appropriate curriculum activities, I have drawn upon the Total Physical Response literature and the Multiple Intelligences Theory, as well as the Early Childhood Development.  More on that, later.

Developmental Keyboarding Grant Writing

I recently completed the Keyboarding endorsment workshop offered by the Utah State Office of Education. I now have research to support my efforts at Developmental Keyboarding.

Keyboarding activities in Elementary Schools should not start with correct posture with tiny fingers on the home row. Students as early as 4 and 5 can locate/recognize the letters on the QWERTY keyboard. They learn best with large motor activities and music! These activities ought to draw upon the Multiple Intelligences Theory of Howard Gardner.

I am renewing my efforts to write grants that will allow me (and my team) to work with students in underserved populations to increase (through training) their ability to interact with computers (at little or no cost to the teachers).  Who's with me?

Fifth Grade Keyboarding Applications

In the same school as the First Grade class posted earlier, I was in a Fifth Grade class that was tightly planned, with textbook based activities using Imagine It! readers (students used a microphone that was passed around as they read) and Drops in a Bucket math curriculum (students worked alone for 10-20 minutes, then with a partner for 5-10 minutes, then we discussed the answers as a class). 

Having completed all of the assignments and having ten minutes left before recess, I asked two of the students at the front of the room to hold up the Pre-Keys vinyl keyboard mat. I pointed out the division between left and right hand letters and asked the students if there was a list of United States, somewhere in the room. They directed me to the pull down maps that covered the white board. I uncovered the map of the United States and suggested to them that of all the States there is only one that can be typed with just the left hand. I sent three volunteer students over to the three computers at the side of the room to try and identify which state can be spelled with just left hand letters. 

I gave the class a clue that it started with a T. "Tennessee" one student shouted out. I gave the next clue, that it has "an X in it." The response was deafening: "Texas!" I confirmed that response and then selected three more volunteers to go to the computer center. 

"There is another state that can be typed with just the right hand letters," I told my captive audience. "It has only four letters and starts and ends with the same vowel." They were almost ahead of me completing the sentence. "Ohio!"

I praised them and then sent three more students to the computer center. "All of the other states require that we use both hands to type their names. But, there is one that can be spelled with just the letters from the home row. Which is the only vowel on the home row? ... That's right, A. This state name actually starts and ends with an A ... no, it's not Alabama, in fact, it doesn't even show up on this map showing 48 states. Yes, Alaska!"

We were then out of time as the bell rang to announce recess. If I had printed paper copies of the QWERTY Island Keys map, then we might have talked about how the top of the keyboard map is North, the bottom of the map (with the letter B near to the belly button) is South, the Tab Key is on the West and the Enter/Return key is to the East.

We might have also considered the letters to be in columns as well as in rows. More on that in the next post.

First Grade applications

Earlier this week I was assigned to work with First Graders as a "Guest Teacher". After I wrote my name on the board with a mnemonic that "Mr. Morgan plays the organ," the students reverted to the use of "Teacher" for any adult in the room. The apologetic teacher left me with a stack of six worksheets while she attended a three hour workshop presented by a Pearson Learning representative training the teachers to use SuccessMaker.

As the students entered the room, after their lunch, they all went to sit on the rug. I met them with a short stack of picture books to read to them but was assaulted with raised hands and personal stories that were remotely associated with words that they heard in the story. They also had to show me the gaps in their mouths where baby teeth were being replaced with permanent teeth. One tooth came out during the brief time I was there and so I had to find a plastic bag to preserve the precious item.

Knowing that Guest Teachers (aka substitute teachers) were not allowed access to the ceiling mounted projectors connected to the Internet, I had brought along my own laptop computer, with Pre-Keys lessons using Microsoft Office PowerPoint. I had also brought along my six feet wide vinyl computer keyboard with color coded background for left and right hand numbers and letters. These I set up on the kidney shaped reading table at the side of the room. Before opening the laptop computer, and after I had distributed and explained the first worksheet, I began inviting students over to the reading table.

The first activity was to invite the students to "slap or poke" the numbers from 1 to 9 across the top of the vinyl keyboard. Every student had a turn, but were instructed to use the left hand for numbers 1 through 5 and the right hand for numbers 6 through 9. When we got to 0 I encouraged them to use both hands as they touched 1 with the left hand and 0 with the right hand in order to make the two-digit numeral 10. It was quite a stretch for them but most managed it. A variation of this might be to have one student act as the left hand and another as the right hand, working in cooperation. This activity aligns with the Core Curriculum Concept of numbers in sequence. It also aligns with left and right hand identification. In addition, it aligns with reading and writing from left to right and from top to bottom. Of course, it is a precursor activity to actually typing numbers on the computer keyboard (not just pointing and clicking).

After the first rotation of students, and having distributed the next two worksheets, I opened the laptop computer (during recess) and had the slideshow playing in a continuous loop. Numerals matching those on the vinyl laptop (just the numbers, without the Shift key options for ! @ # $ % ... ) came flying in, if they were left handed shapes then they entered the screen from the left. If they were right handed shapes then they entered from the right. After the numbers, lower case letters on lily pads began entering the screen. Students seated at the table had time to find and poke the matching shapes on the vinyl keyboard that they saw on the screen before the software advanced to the next shape. For some students that were faster than others, I simply pressed the space bar on the laptop to advance to the next shape. Students who picked up on that began pressing the vinyl spacebar after each letter that they typed.

At the end of the day I received hugs or high fives from students who exclaimed at how much fun they had had. Another learning center variation might have been to print (on paper) and laminate the shapes for students to match on the vinyl pad. Those shapes might then be grouped for a Scrabble style activity where students form words from their weekly vocabulary list using specific groups of letters. More on that with the fifth graders.

Keyboarding is the Key to Computer Literacy

Welcome to my world. Having grown up on piano lessons, with six younger sisters and three pianos in the house, I learned early in life to develop finger dexterity and think through my fingers. However, it was not until high school when I learned to use the typewriter (I know this really dates me, but I'm over 50, so get over it!). At the University of Utah I learned to type a rough draft on the Mac Classic, save an electronic copy, and return later to edit what I had written without retyping the whole page or paper.

Also at "the U" I took software evaluation classes, where we analyzed and identified the strengths and weaknesses of educational software and specific ways to integrate technology with classroom curriculum. That began my quest, to evaluate teachers' use of technology. This theme followed me throughout my graduate studies at Brigham Young University, when I became certified as an Educational Administrator. At Utah State University, then, I developed an instrument for assessing teachers' use of technology and used it to Evaluate the Idaho Technology Portfolio Assessment. More on that later.

Today I am transferring over from DocFrog.blogspot.com. I realized, lately, that the label "Doc Frog" makes sense to those who have known me over the past decade and how I have encouraged my students not to "hunt and peck like chickens" with their fingers, but rather to "hop like Doc Frog" on the computer keyboard. However, Keyboarding Integration with Core Curriculum is really what I am all about (not just keyboarding).