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.
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