Typing education in schools is commonplace today, after a decade of growing interest. Computer teachers employ a variety of methods to make sure that lessons will enrich and intrigue even the youngest of pupils. This is sometimes difficult as, with their fleeting attention span, interest comes and goes quickly with students. Keyboarding might be fun one day and boring the next. Luckily, there are loads of options that will help avert this. Touch typing programs like Typesy offer an assortment of features that help teachers educate and students learn. Here are three features in Typesy that can be useful in the school setting. Online Typing Courses Typesy has a comprehensive selection of touch typing courses students of all ages can take. Beginners can start with the Classic course and its basic lessons on the parts of the keyboard. From there, they can gradually move on to building speed and accuracy, attempting dictation typing, and even achieving mastery through bonus lessons. Curricula that require students to have a more in-depth keyboard relationship can opt for the Interactive course. It pays particular attention to each row of the keyboard as well as the shift, punctuation, number, and symbol keys. Typing Improvement Progress Charts As education is primarily based on practice, students and teachers greatly benefit from tracking improvement when it comes to touch typing. Typesy’s software ensures that checking your statistics is easy. Progress maps are updated to cater to your touch typing needs, as there are maps that track typing competency,…
Paid vs Free Typing Programs: Which Should You Choose?
Image by Daniel Agrelo from Pixabay When starting your Touch Typing Training, your first task is finding the right typing program for you. There are tons of options available on the internet, so picking one is only a matter of preference. A major consideration you should make is choosing between paid and free programs. It isn’t just a matter of money; you’ll also want to see if a program’s quality and content is worth your buck. Having a tough time deciding? Here, we’ll give you a nifty guide on differentiating paid and free typing programs by their characteristics. 1) Course Availability Paid: To access the courses of paid typing programs, you will have to, of course, pay for them. Prices vary according to your license/subscription and the edition that you have purchased. Your degree of access may also depend on what kind of user you sign up as. For example, Typesy’s EDU edition allows those registered as teachers more admin oversight than their students. Free: Free programs allow free registration or sign up. There are also programs that do not require an account, such as Typing Club and Dancing Mat. 2) Lessons Paid: Paid programs have lessons that fit all age groups, where skill assessments designate users to their corresponding levels. Others allow the manual adjustment according to user preference. In most cases, paid software release an assortment of editions that cater to a more inclusive audience. Free: The lessons in free programs are mostly limited to specific audiences, usually…
What WPM Is Considered A Slow and Fast Typing Speed?
The fastest typists in the world, with speeds ranging from 160 WPM – words per minute – to over 300, don’t “need” to type so fast that no one can hear over the sound of their clattering keyboards. But typing that fast gives them a distinct advantage in their chosen careers, and wins awards to boot. The average typing speed is about 41 WPM, with an accuracy rate of 92%. There is nothing wrong with typing more slowly than this, but it can impact your ability to take notes, write documents, and keep up with a competitive workplace. Learning to type faster will improve your professional profile. How to Improve a “Slow” Typing Speed The average speed for women is 37 WPM, and the average speed for men is 44. If your speed is lower than this, don’t worry – you can make vast improvement with a bit more practice each day. Learning your keyboard’s structure will help you; the more you understand the layout, the faster you’ll be able to type. Beginning typists are famous for practicing the “hunt and peck” method of typing, where you use your index fingers to seek each letter individually. This can be a slow process. If you shift your style to the “ten-finger” style, where each finger of the hand is responsible for a different part of the keyboard, you can train your hand for touch typing. “Good” Typing Speed and How to Get Faster Typing at a speed of 57 WPM or…
What is Ergonomic Keyboard & How Is It Designed?
Ergonomic keyboards are keyboards designed for professionals, students, and anyone else who is required to touch type repetitively and for long amounts of time An ergonomic keyboard has specific design features to ensure a pleasant and pain-free keyboarding experience, even if you touch type for the greater part of your eight-hour long work day. Ergonomic Keyboards: A Definition To understand what an ergonomic keyboard is, you must first understand why they were created in the first place. Normal keyboards are not what you call optimal when it comes to how they’re designed. They often value form over function, or are just plain painful to use, hear, and work on. Common keyboards, usually older versions, are not ideal for repetitive keyboarding because they haven’t been designed with user comfort in mind. They force you to place your wrists at uncomfortable flat positions and over time they damage or inflame your tendons, often resulting in carpal tunnel syndrome (among other health issues). On the other hand, an ergonomic keyboard has been designed for optimum user comfort and performance. It keeps your wrists and hands at a position that feels more natural for your wrists, making it easy to touch type for hours on end without any issue. An ergonomically designed keyboard offers the support you need to touch type without putting your hands’ health at risk. Ergonomic Keyboards Recommended by Health Professionals Ergonomic keyboards are designed for minimizing your risk for repetitive stress injury and carpal tunnel syndrome. As a result, by…
10 Ways Technology Is Improving Education
Without controversy, technology has improved human lives today than ever. People in the 21st century are completely powerless without science and technology. Consider cooking, reading, playing, communications and any other important human endeavor, technological progress is literally our lifeline. We can, however, decide to use these helpful devices for our good or watch it take over our lives from us. It’s all our choice. According to research from Pew Research Centre, over 95% of Americans now have a cell phone. Almost 80% of them also use smartphones, and the number keeps flying on other similar devices. The world is already, willingly and graciously, hooked to technology. The impact of technology on education system is growing rapidly and daily. It’s practically impossible to soar in your academics, whether as a teacher or a learner, without deploying the powers of tech for education. From reading, organizing your resources, presenting your works in a most fascinating and convincing form to reaching details that are practically impossible for humans within the limited timeline we are constantly hooked today, tech in education is redefining the template and the rules of research and learning. The question, therefore, is: how do we deploy advanced technology to boost education and learning? The Power of Technology in 21st Century Education The focus of this work is to explain how technology improved education globally. And, of course, how we can we yet get the best from it. Today, there are a countless number of gadgets and apps that are in…
Smartphones: How They Affect Your Life
It’s the first thing you look at in the morning and probably the last thing you see before going to bed at night. Smartphones have become part and parcel of daily life. Whether for communicating with friends and clients around the world, paying your bills, shopping, or being more productive and more fit, your smartphone is the all-in-one device that makes your life easier. Psychological Wellbeing Social media is a great place to hang out. You network on LinkedIn and learn the news on Twitter, check out what friends are doing on Facebook, and Snapchat with your closest buddies just for the fun of it. But often our obsession with always being online, always sharing and liking, always producing something more of ourselves and putting it out there for the world to judge and love, puts an emotional drain on our self-confidence. We become dependent on others’ approval of our choices and we feel bad when they don’t readily share this excitement and love with us. Taking a break from social networks can help you realize that life goes on without them. You can do something and not feel the need to post it for the world to see it. Events can still happen, and you can feel equally amazing, even when just keeping it to yourself. But it’s not just what you share, it’s you sharing in what others do. Following models, athletes, celebrities and other famous people can make you feel bad about yourself, your accomplishements. Comparing ourselves…
Slow Down For Better Productivity
Sometimes, fast-paced lifestyles don’t cut it. You’d think that reading, eating and working faster would catapult your productivity into a new level of efficiency, but the truth is that such an energy-depleting way of living can lead to burnout instead. There’s only so much stress and pressure one person can handle. While power drinks and coffee might offer you that desperately needed push, sometimes to be productive you must slow down. Yes, I said slow down. Before you dismiss my proposal as impossible, hear me out. It might sound ironic but it’s true; we’ve been trained to think that the faster we engage with tasks the better our results. But this is only partially true. If what we’re after is long-term, sustainable productivity then the key is to slow down a bit. With less stress burdening your shoulders you boost your clarity and efficiency, ultimately allowing yourself to be more productive. Thanks, but no thanks It’s important to turn down extra projects, overtime work, and anything else that puts extra strain on your already packed schedule. If people come to know you as the “yes, of course I will” person, then you will soon find yourself overwhelmed by the amount of tasks and responsibilities constantly deluging you, and you’ll find it increasingly harder to say “no.” Saying “sorry, no” reminds people of your own humanity and limitations, and its nurtures others’ respect for you. Fewer responsibilities mean less workload, which then equals better productivity. Simple math here. It’s all in…
Technology and Conventional Teaching Practices: The Road to Effective Learning in The Classroom
Can Educational Technology ever entirely replace actual teaching? Probably not, but that’s beside the point. What we should be striving to understand and focusing on today is not whether technology has advanced enough to replace conventional learning methodologies and even teachers, but whether the technologies at hand can complement and reinforce our existing tools and practices. Teaching will become more efficient, measurable, and fun when technology and existing teaching methods and practices are integrated in a single approach. Picture a new era of teaching that’s decisively informed by technology but is still deeply rooted in research and proven teaching practices. Dumbing us down or lifting us higher? When abused, technology does not promote learning, but inhibits it. When used wisely, technology can benefit educators and students alike. Technology doesn’t dumb society down in and of itself, however. Yes, people might have every answer at their fingertips thanks to the immensely vast and chaotic Internet and its near-infinite resources, but that doesn’t mean technology doesn’t also nurture critical thinking, innovation, and imagination. Technology has a supportive role in learning. It facilitates our thinking by offering answers through computing processes and enabling us to reach conclusions faster. It doesn’t simply give us answers, but it makes the process easier. A case for creativity To say that technology in the classroom is dangerous and counterproductive is to lose sight of its potential to drive knowledge and learning forward. Using technologies in the classroom – things like social media, collaborative networks, and video teleclasses…