ictsan

Doorway Text Type is a touch typing tutor is designed for visually impaired people. One of the priorities was to make it as clear as possible.

It can be used by anyone wanting to learn to touch type.

There are some basic rules;

• Get into a comfortable position. with the keybaord placed centrally
• Locate the home keys. F and J have ridges on them to help you find them
• Do not look at your hands. All the information you need is on the screen. The letter to be pressed, the finger to use.
• Do not hurry. There is no advantage in going fast. It is acuracy that matters.
• Type at a steady rate. Do not speed up for the easy bits and slow down for the tricky parts. Try to type to a slow even beat.
• You need to score 94% on an exercise twice before going on to the next one. If you go on without mastering the previous one, it will just be too hard.
• At the start, do not try to to type too much. A single exercise at one session is enough. Use it on a ‘little and often’ basis.
• Do not look at your hands. If you look at your hands, you are practising a different skill. You will always need to look at your hands.

Touch typing is a motor habit like riding abike. Once you have learnt it you can use it any time again in your life.

This is a very vexed question. It is ironic that as the number of computers increases, the number of people actually touch typing is probably falling. Why?

• Touch typing is a motor skill. If you look at your hands you will be learning a different skill; typing with your hands in the right position, but still looking at the keys
• The main problem with touch typing is that it is a long process and loses its impact if the learner is using a hunt and peck method to type work in the meantime.
• You need the following; a good piece of touch typing tutor software; plenty of intensive practice; motivation to keep on using the skill.

A good TT computer program has; good notes explaining the rationale; a good on screen layout that prompts the correct key-press; a strucured set of exercise that lead from placing the fingers on the home keys to the use of the whole keybaord.

One piece of software that is recommended is English type. It acts as a very good tutor. It also explains well in text and audio why you should not look at your hands. It is available from http://www.englishtype.com

The BBC has an on line typing tutor;
Dance Mat Typing;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

This has a good ‘about’ sections which should be essential reading. The presentation is gimmicky and cluttered, but it’s free and on-line so does not need installing on your computer or network.

A tip – really good touch typers type at a steady rate. The temptation for some learners is to type too fast. They tend to rush through the parts they can do easily and then slow down for the trickier parts. The best way is to learn to type slowly but evenly as if to a beat. As you practice you can speed up. Accuracy, not speed, is the important issue when you start learning.

Touch typing for all pupils?
If a class is learning to touch type, they need to have sufficient experience, which means a cluster or network of computers to use. They also need to keep away from using the keyboard for other purposes. This is the hardest challenge!

It seems that we are able to predict pupils’ likely success with touch typing by pretesting them on a simple handwriting speed and neatness test. Quick and neat writers are likely to work quickly through the exercises. Slow writers with poorly formed letters are likely to struggle with touch typing.

revised  9.9.2007