5 New Educational Trends to Beat Old School Techniques


February 17, 2014

Technology has always changed education, and the increased pace of technological development means that change is almost inevitable. Mobile apps and tablets are now being integrated into the learning process both inside and outside the classroom, and stubbornly sticking to old school techniques means losing sight of the many benefits technology-assisted education can provide.

Blended Learning

Blended learning has its fair share of both advocates and opponents. This type of mixed learning infuses the old with the new.

Traditional class tasks and assignments get an interactive, connected character by integrating state-of-the-art props like social media usage, online forums, and internet research into pencil-and-paper classwork.

Blended learning emphasizes the significance of the web as a facilitator of learning, where every valuable body of knowledge, support, and resources is available to students to promote their learning.

Collaborative Learning

Collaboration has always been a favored strategy in learning, and with the omnipresence of technology, it is now easier than ever to establish collaborative learning models, especially in after-school hours.

Teachers use collaborative learning models to reach out to the talent already in their classrooms, tapping into their students’ ideas and creativity. Collaboration moves the teacher away from the front of the classroom and lets them join the students in a creative circle, where each student can get into the spotlight. The teacher is regarded as a facilitator of learning in this educational trend, one which is expected to be very popular in 2014.

In this model, an added dimension is offered by the web and associated media, something that makes collaboration possible both during and outside of school hours, because communication is efficient and always available.

Tech-Powered Advantages

Instant communication between students and teachers, and between students in working groups, is made easier with technology. Between the internet, tablets, and cell phones, there are always ways to ensure smooth project completion and enriched collaboration for shared projects.

Today, students also have the advantage of using media-creating tools to complete school projects to get the most out of their learning. This teaches both creativity in design and development and the computer skills that are so necessary to the 21st century world.

Information sharing and interaction is what nurtures new relationships between students and teachers. Technology levels the playing field, allowing a student and a teacher to form a relationship that doesn’t discriminate against rank but sees both as equally contributing to the dissemination of knowledge.

From social media use in classrooms to skill-improvement software that teaches students keyboarding and spelling, technology aids promote learning in a variety of areas.

Personal Learning Network

This trend touches upon the tech-driven teaching approach and it’s essentially the idea of fruitful interactions between a learner and the knowledgeable group of people they are expecting to learn from.

The winning point of this educational trend is that it is learning-driven. While the use of social media and technological equipment can distract learners from learning, PLN’s are created with the sole purpose of knowledge sharing, so there’s no distraction or side-tracking.

Performance-Based Learning

Many educators and researchers believe this is the ideal learning model. It focuses on active use of knowledge, following the theory that no knowledge can be truly mastered until it is actively applied by the learner.

This trend calls for significant focus on critical evaluation of knowledge and its application in ways that illustrate the learner’s mastery of that knowledge. Performance-based learning helps the learner link a new skill or knowledge to a specific purpose.

Using any of these new trends in education, the teacher can learn as much as the student, because teaching often becomes bi-directional. As many of these trends are new, a lot of study and testing is expected to take place until the perfect balance between tech-based and conventional teaching methods is found.

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/

Making Sense of Touch Typing Techniques is Easy With Sense-Lang.org


February 8, 2014

If you’re looking for a free typing test, easy techniques to learn keyboarding skills, or just a few fun typing games to help keep your fingers nimble, then you’ll want to visit the website Sense-Lang.org. Anyone can join in the fun, and the competitions sponsored by the website open up typing challenges to schools and students around the world. We asked the development team at Sense-Lang.org to describe the competitions and to talk about some of their favorite games.

Typesy: On February 10, 2014, your next typing challenge starts. How can people get signed up to participate in the Typing Race?

SL: The competition is intended for classes. We’ve provided teachers with a virtual school environment. This environment allows to create classes, manage students, generate assignments, lessons and tests and view their progress. Our concept is that games can efficiently motivate the learning process and the teachers feedback support it.

The “Typing Race” is an excellent example for a game which inspire students to practice. Therefore, we’ve created the World Typing Championship for Classes. Teachers can register classes in the competition from their dashboard and enjoy cool statistics to share at the class/student level.

Typesy: The games you provide let people practice a wide range of keyboarding skills, from letter placement to whole-word typing and even sentence construction. Teens and adults will have a lot of fun with them, but there’s no game on the site right now for younger kids. Since children as young as three years old are learning to use computers these days, will you be developing games that are designed for the 3-to-6-year-old age group?

SL: Although we’re constantly looking for new ideas, markets and visions, the goal of the website is to share the touch typing technique with the world and the main focus is aimed for school ages. Sense-lang already targeted senior audience (Skillfulsenior.com) and it is very likely that pre-school ages will be approached as well at some point.

Typesy: Users can select tutorials based on the common QWERTY keyboard layout or the less-common but still popular Dvorak layout. What is the Colemak keyboard, which is also an available option?

SL: Indeed, Colemak is less common than QWERTY and DVORAK. The Colemak structure is relatively similar to QWERTY but offers convenient capabilities such as a heavier use of home (middle) row and minimized finger path distance.

Typesy: How can a teacher use the Sense-Lang.org website in their classroom?

SL: Sometimes, one link is better than thousand words. Our manual contains all the available features and characteristics of the virtual school environment – click here to find out more: http://www.sense-lang.org/teachers/instruction.pdf

Typesy: Although more and more people are using social media, it’s still often hard for older people who never learned to type to make the most of the internet. What suggestions do you have for people who aren’t comfortable using a computer, much less the keyboard?

SL: As mentioned previously, Skillfulsenior.com (one of our brands) offers to teach computers basics for seniors or inexperienced users. Our brand – PieceOfCake – contains a large variety of educational websites: poenglishcake.com (learning English), spanishuno.com (learning Spanish), pomindcake.com (mind challenges) are currently on line, and more are still to come.

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/

Typing: A Life Skill Children Need to Know


January 30, 2014

Today’s children are growing up knowing how to use keyboards-based devices to play and interact from an early age. Whether on their own tablet or smartphone or one a parent handed to them to keep them distracted and entertained, children no older than 2 or 3 years old are already engaging with touchscreen and physical keyboards. But just because their exposure to touch typing keyboards happens early, that doesn’t mean they’ll end up developing an efficient typing technique. There’s still a need for formal touch typing training for school-age children. Touch typing is neither time-consuming nor difficult to master, especially for children, who pick up new skills easily. The key to successfully teaching children to touch type is to offer them early and age-appropriate touch typing practice and guidance.

Make learning to touch type fun by taking advantage of the wide variety of games and activities that introduce touch typing to young children. Approaching touch typing through play increases a child’s willingness to engage with learning and makes them eager to come back for more lessons. Games and apps give young students a sense for touch typing within a context that’s friendly, informal and entertaining. Letting kids associate touch typing with fun and play builds the basis for introducing more learning-focused touch typing activities in their practice later on, when they have better motor skills and a longer attention span.

Take advantage of the fact that the child hasn’t yet developed their own hunt-and-peck touch typing habit and use this opportunity to introduce solid and efficient typing habits. First, take enough time to introduce the keyboard to the child. During the familiarization process you can introduce basic rules of ergonomics, regarding the ideal sitting position and wrist placement, monitor distance and height, as well as more to-the-point rules with regard to finger placement on the Home Row keys.

One basic element of successful touch typing for young learners is to reward progress and let the child know that touch typing is a skill that involves a lot of trial and error to get it right. Children are often disappointed by their initial lack of typing accuracy, resulting in them being no longer interested in learning to touch type. You can avoid this by motivating them through rewards and affirmative talk. This is essential for keeping them inspired to practice until they become good at it.

Even if you choose the best touch typing software out there, it’s still important that you allow ample time for breaks. Each typing training session should last no more than 20 minutes. After 20 minutes of practice, the child will most likely lose interest and get easily distracted. Rather than practicing 20 or 30 minutes straight, split the practice into three sessions and in between each session introduce “brain breaks” – a little dance to a song, walking outside for 3 minutes, anything to relax them and help their mind refocus.

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/

7 of the Funniest Typos We’ve Ever Seen


January 23, 2014

Just My Typo: SOTP typo

Good typing skills are the key that will help you unlock the doors leading to future career opportunities – but not if you don’t proofread your CV, resume, and cover letter before you put them in the mail or hit the [Enter] key to send them on line. While it’s amusing to look at examples of other peoples’ mistakes, it’s not so funny when it happens to you. For example, if you want to highlight your accurate touch-typing skills then make sure you don’t boast about being a “rabid typist.” And don’t count on your computer spell-check function to save you from similarly-spelled words that have completely different meanings, or you’ll find that you’ve infected your job application with a potentially fatal disease.

It seems like typos should be obvious to find and fix, but even when they’re hard to miss they’re still often not found and corrected. Not every mistake will lead to a huge problem, but you can stop small issues from becoming bigger ones by carefully checking your work before you call it a day.

Don’t leave the editing duties to someone else, either! Even if you’re a CEO or running for office, take the time you need to look over what’s going to be published under your name, because you’re selling yourself in business and politics, and your mistakes in advertising won’t get you much in the way of supporters or clients. And even when you’ve made it to the top, make sure that everyone from the bottom up knows that it’s important to double check what gets shared on your social media channels!

It’s not just business owners that can lose out. Students have to be careful to check their papers and read over their exams before turning them in. If you’re a student, don’t rely on your computer to correct your mistakes, even if it’s 3am and you’re finishing typing your paper with one eye on the clock. If you’re not careful, you could join the group of students who get marked down for typos that a quick review would have caught.

We hope you’ve gotten a good laugh from the typos featured in this post – and we hope that you’re inspired to improve your typing accuracy to avoid having your own typos featured somewhere in the future!

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/

Three Things You Didn’t Know About Typing


January 16, 2014

Your fingers know more than your eyes. The goal of touch typing is to be able to quickly hit the right keys with your fingers, without using your eyes to find those keys first. What researchers have now found is that even if you’re a skilled touch typist, you probably won’t be able to quickly find those keys with your eyes at all. In other words, once you’ve trained your fingers to find the letters on the keyboard, your brain seems to move all knowledge of key locations into the area that controls unconscious muscle movements. In a collaborative study done in Japan and the United States, people were asked to first type words in a quick typing test; most people passed the test, typing between 60-80wpm with fairly high accuracy. Next, the study participants were given a blank diagram of a keyboard, and asked to fill in all of the letters and symbols on the keys in a standard QWERTY layout – and almost all of them failed. Think you can do better? Try it yourself!

The world’s fastest typists reach speeds of more than 200wpm. Barbara Blackburn (United States) has the official title of the fastest typist in the English language at 212wpm, although other online computer-keyboard typists have clocked slightly faster times in the last few years. Michael Shestov has the current record for number-only typing, but the jury is out on who has the fastest and most error-free typing totals for full-keyboard typing around the world. What’s your current typing speed – and what’s your goal for improvement this year?

There is an International Typewriter Day. To celebrate all things typewritten, get your old Underwood, Olivetti, or Brother out of the storage room, dust it off, and get ready to join typing and typewriter aficionados around the world on June 23rd. That’s the date that the first typewriter patent was granted in 1868. If you don’t have a typewriter, you can still join in with a free app called Noisy Typer that will make your laptop sound just like a 19th-century machine!

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/

Do You Own One of These Hard-to-Find Items?


January 9, 2014

You’ve probably got dozens of them in drawers or countertop containers, though not all of them may work. Five hundred years ago, you could grab a handful of them in the barnyard. Since the 19th century, they’ve been used as retirement gifts, status symbols, and artist’s tools, but they’re being replaced by the tools of modern technology, and they’re getting rarer – and more expensive.

We’re talking about fountain pens, good ones, that is. Commercialized in England in the 1850s, the fountain pen quickly replaced the older dip pens (goose-feather quills, frequently) that had to be refreshed constantly from a bottle of ink. With a fountain pen, it became possible to let your writing flow as quickly and smoothly as your thoughts, and the pens became widely used in education, business, and at home. However, the age of plastic saw the rise of the ballpoint pen, which replaced the disposable ink cartridge by making the entire pen disposable, and now it’s hard to find a fountain pen anywhere but in a specialist’s shop. The German company Montblanc, which started in the early 20th century, still continues to make their signature pens (the company is now owned by another organization). These aren’t ones that you want to lose in your desk drawer, either – most of the fountain pens sell for between $400 and $4,000 each.

As we turn more and more to the computer keyboard or laptop touchscreen for our communication needs, it’s hard to remember that not so long ago all letters were written with ink on paper. It’s even harder to remember that there are times when a handwritten note or letter is better than a quick e-mail. Take the time that you save by your touch typing skills and use them to pick up a pen, and write a note to someone you love or a friend you’ve been thinking of. Even if you’re using a 69-cent plastic pen, sometimes the personal touch is worth a million dollars.

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/

How to Set and Meet Your Goals


January 2, 2014

If you’re using the Typesy program to increase your touch typing speed and accuracy, you know how useful the goal and tracking features are. But no matter what you’re doing, or what you’d like to achieve in 2014, be sure to use the same techniques to help you reach your personal goals for the year. We’ve put together some tips for setting and meeting your goals in the new year, and wish you all the success you deserve in the next twelve months!

When you set a definite goal – for example, working towards being able to type 98wpm with 98% accuracy – you can visualize that goal, making it real in your mind and therefore something that can really be achieved. What’s more, having a set goal allows you to see your progress as you improve, and that provides positive feedback that keeps you optimistic and energized, confident that you’ll soon reach the goal that you set.

If you’re not sure what your goals are for 2014, take some time to think about what’s important to you, and what’s important in your family life, your job, and your personal development. Once you identify your priorities, you’ll be able to start listing some concrete steps to turning those priorities into reality. Because you’ve recognized that these goals are necessary and valuable, you’ll be able to maintain your motivation even when things get rough.

Things will get rough, unfortunately, because it’s rare when everything works smoothly all the time without anything unexpected coming up. Because it’s better to plan than to be surprised, be sure to remain flexible and build some margins into your schedule. When you’ve given yourself an extra fifteen minutes or even fifteen days to finish a task, you’ll relax and make more progress.

Finally, when you’ve reached your goal, reward yourself for your success – and then set a new goal, and set off for even greater rewards.

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/

Top Tips on Tech Toys


December 26, 2013

Gifts are great! Adults would generally agree with that statement, and we can’t think of any kids who would disagree. Around the world, one of the most popular categories of gifts is the “gadget” category, and most of those gadgets these days involve some sort of interface, whether that’s with a touchpad or a keyboard. While your kids might appreciate the latest high-tech toy, it’s important to remember that there are disadvantages as well as advantages to encouraging them to spend time using electronic devices. For example, did you know that there’s a big difference between “active” and “passive” use of devices like smartphones and iPads? Are you aware of the impact of these toys on a child’s health and eyesight? To get the best results from these gifts, follow these guidelines:

Keep it personal. Recent studies using Skype showed that younger children are much more likely to pay attention to the screen when there’s a human face displayed. Additionally, when the children are prompted by the on-screen person to respond or interact, they’re more engaged in the process and more quick to learn and remember. A device that just plays recordings or videos won’t stimulate a child’s brain as much as one that keeps them involved in an ongoing, ever-changing conversation. While babies and toddlers can’t use the keyboard to communicate, you can help older children to get better at typing so that they can profit from online chats and e-mail messages.

Keep it active. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently published an article discussing the way electronic games and devices are used, and noted that toys and games that push a child to think and make decisions keep their brains more active. In general, the “decisions” required by a game like the hugely popular Candy Crush aren’t ones that require thought, and in fact this type of game is more relaxing than stimulating. If you’re looking for educational electronic toys, make sure that they involve real choices and actions, rather than just mindless (if fun) clicking on colorful objects.

Keep it turned off. Another issue raised by the AAP relates to being active in the sense of physical activities, and they warn that spending too much time sitting still with a computer, laptop, tablet, or handheld device will lead to potentially harmful effects in the future. Like everyone, kids need to keep physically fit and active, so make sure that after the first few days of playing with their new toys, those toys are left inside and turned off. When children are using their electronic devices, make sure that the lighting is good so that they don’t harm their eyes with too much screen glare, and encourage good posture even when the child is playing games.

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/

5 Minute Breaks, 10 Times More Productive


December 19, 2013

When you’re focused and concentrating on a task, whether that’s studying for an examination, trying to learn a new language, or getting familiar with a new piece of equipment at work, your brain is working hard. In fact, the amount of information you’re trying to stuff into your mind can give you the impression that your head is literally full, and that at a certain point you just can’t cram in even the smallest additional fact. It’s a familiar sensation to all of us – but the interesting thing is that even when your mind is working its hardest, it’s still not working as hard as when you’re totally relaxed and not thinking about anything in particular. In a fascinating article that recently appeared in the journal Scientific American, researchers and neuroscientists confirmed that the brain is actually 20 times more active during rest and meditation than when a person is concentrating on solving a problem. This “default mode network” (DMN) appears to be crucially important in learning and in developing the physical structures in the brain, especially those related to memory. What’s more, regular breaks, naps, “time out” periods, and vacations all contribute to better health and overall well-being.

These findings mean that whether you’re spending an hour a day working on your typing skills, or if you’ve got a job that requires you to stay at the keyboard all day long, you’ll be more productive in the end if you take regular breaks. Instead of working on your typing for an hour, practice for 15 minutes, then take a five-minute break, and then start another 15-minute session. While this means that you’re only getting 45 minutes of actual typing during that hour, you’ll be able to use those breaks to stretch your hands and shoulders to relieve tension. You can get up and walk around and start the blood flowing through your body and up into your brain, which needs oxygen to build the neural network that lets you develop the unconscious skill in your fingers that come from trained muscle memory. Use this pattern when you’re at work, and you’ll find that your energy level stays high – both your physical energy and your mental energy. You’ll get through your work quickly and efficiently, ready to leave at the end of the day with everything checked off your to-do list, and that will make your free time even more relaxing. More relaxation at home means less stress at work, which leads to more efficiency … it’s a healthy cycle that you can start at any time. So once you’ve finished reading the Scientific American article, step away from the computer, take a break, and start relaxing into a healthy mind and body!

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/

Computers, Comics, and Typing


December 12, 2013

Are you old enough to remember the original Charlie Brown comics drawn by Charles Schulz? If so you’ll be familiar with the sight of Snoopy sitting on the roof of his red doghouse, tapping away on a typewriter and hoping to write the next great American novel. Unfortunately, many of his manuscripts ended up using the same opening phrase: “It was a dark and stormy night …” Even so, you’ve got to give credit to a dog who taught himself to type!

Typing is so much a part of everyday life for people in the 21st century that a lot of the old jokes about typewriters don’t apply any more. Instead, they’ve been replaced by jokes about typing on computer keyboards, and especially about texting – we’re sure you’re familiar with the “Damn You, Autocorrect!” meme. (Note: Remember that it’s a good idea to turn off the autocorrect feature in your word processing program so that you don’t miss any mistyped words.) One comic artist in particular, Randall Munroe, regularly shows his characters spending a lot of time typing at computer keyboards, something that’s not surprising when you know that he’s also a computer coder whose interests include physics and robotics. In a recent “What If?” comic/column he talked about the different words and phrases that it’s possible to type using just the home row keys, or just the left hand, for example. His comic is proof that it’s possible to get creative and have fun with typing, especially if you challenge yourself to come up with practice phrases like “Alas, Dad had a glass salad.”

Here are some more comics we found that include references to keyboarding and typing:

“The Typing Tutor”
“Far Away”
“Jim is Typing”
“Touch-Typing”

So don’t stress out about your touch typing study program, and find things that make you laugh when you’re typing. Try practicing your typing skills by transcribing a routine by a stand-up comic, or use Typesy’s text import feature to bring in a funny story to use as the basis for your practice exercises. Relax and have fun! And don’t forget to share this post with your friends – or are you “too pretty to retweet?”

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/

Recent Stories

Topics