For most of us, it’s hard to think of a time when we couldn’t fluently type on a keyboard or efficiently navigate the internet in an appropriate manner. But for many young children entering school today, these skills are not automatic and can be challenging to learn.
Here are our top three things to remember when teaching keyboarding to young learners:
1. Keyboarding instruction should be fun.
Keyboarding and digital citizenship lessons don’t have to be boring. Keyboarding instruction is a great time to incorporate more fun content into lessons. Have students type silly sentences or paragraphs like: Elephants have large ears, but they don’t wear earrings. In addition to typing practice, incorporate cross-curricular themes into dictation exercises so students can reinforce learning in different subject areas like social studies, math, and science.
2. Avoid drill-like exercises when teaching letters on the keyboard.
Although it seems that repetition would cause students to learn keys better, the way letters are taught and how students practice typing them are more important than pressing the a key repetitively. Students learn best when they are taught the keyboard in different sections such as rows to ensure that they are learning the different movements between letters and finger-key association.
3. Keyboarding instruction needs to include digital citizenship exercises.
Although typing mastery is something students need to achieve, students also need to explicitly learn digital citizenship skills to safely, appropriately, and effectively navigate the internet, interact with others online, and to successfully take online tests and assessments.
Appropriate and effective keyboarding instruction is an important part of every young learner’s overall education and is imperative in helping young students succeed on any assignment in any setting.
Want to learn more about appropriate and effective keyboarding instruction? Stop by booth #2268 at ISTE to learn more about how Keyboarding Without Tears® helps students achieve keyboarding fluency with cross-curricular content and digital citizenship lessons! See you there!