If you need to learn how to type, or how to type faster, there are some games that will help to practice typing much more interesting than repeatedly typing “The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog”.
Whether you are teaching a young child how to type for the first time, or you are an adult who has yet to master the skill, here are a few reasons playing some games online could be a great way to master how to type:
Fun means you are more likely to stick with something and not give up on it after a short period of time! It takes a long time and a lot of practice to master any skill, and playing games along the way will help keep your brain engaged and keep your interest while you are typing. Everyone would rather be typing to beat a clock or an opponent instead of just typing the same phrase over and over and over again. That would get boring after a while!
Once you understand the concepts behind typing, where the keys are laid out, how to use the Function keys, the numeric keypad, etc., it is all about mastering your hand-eye coordination. Playing typing games will help with that. To be clear, we are not talking about playing another round of Call of Duty. There are specific games designed to help improve typing and they will also improve hand-eye coordination.
Hand-eye coordination, for example, will help you accomplish other tasks besides just typing. If you are teaching young students how to type, losing at a game will also help them learn to face a setback and overcome it, which will be useful later in life.
Instead of repeatedly typing, again and again, playing a game can give you, or your students, a goal to achieve. While it might seem insignificant, working towards a goal is known to improve motivation and make it easier to learn a skill like typing. Would you rather work towards a goal of typing so many words per minute faster than you did before, or would you rather type aimlessly with no way to track your progress?
Kids, and people, do not typically respond well to punishment. It has its place in certain situations, but teaching a young kid how to type generally is not one of them. Positive reinforcement is a better tactic. Games help reinforce what works and what does not, without making the player feel like they did something wrong. In most cases, they can just restart the game and learn immediately how to fix the mistake they made, which is better for long-term learning.
Not only do games not punish the player, but they serve as a reason to get better. Who hasn’t played a video game and spent far too many hours trying to level up? Repeatedly getting denied the same goal over and over again makes you want to jump right back in the ring and try again. This also leads to great satisfaction when you finally master the skill that you needed to beat the game!
Summary
Games should absolutely be involved as part of learning typing for everyone! Especially if you are teaching young children who already have a notoriously low attention span, incorporating games into your typing training can be a great way to keep them involved in learning, and excited to perfect their typing skills.
Check out Typesy Community and exchange ideas related to touch typing, keyboarding, learning, technology, and Typesy program itself. Login with your Typesy Account here: https://community.typesy.com/