Carol Parker is grateful that her school has supported her efforts to offer students keyboarding instruction.
The assistant principal at Tennessee鈥檚 Rockvale Middle School has witnessed firsthand how students鈥� writing improves when they learn to keep their fingers on the keyboard鈥檚 home row and thumbs on the spacebar.
鈥淲hen I have former students that I see out in public, they love to share with me how, 鈥極h, in middle school, this class helped me so much,鈥欌�� said Parker, whose school is located southwest of Nashville.
Just as more states are requiring schools to teach the fading art of cursive, Parker as well as many fellow educators and researchers are calling for a parallel focus on the basic skill of keyboarding, particularly in the elementary grades. Learning the foundational skill early isn鈥檛 only sound life preparation, they argue, but it can set students up for academic success as high-stakes assessments increasingly go digital鈥攊ncluding, most recently, the College Board鈥檚 Advanced Placement exams. And although students are growing up using smart phones and iPads, their natural inclination toward technology doesn鈥檛 mean they inherently know how to properly keyboard.
But even as more states set standards around keyboarding instruction, it鈥檚 not a given that all schools formally teach it, said Denise Donica, professor and chair of the department of occupational therapy at East Carolina University, who has also studied the rise in demand for handwriting instruction in public schools.
鈥淚t kind of mirrors the same thing that we鈥檝e seen in handwriting. You have expectations of what students are supposed to be able to do, but taking time to teach those foundational skills isn鈥檛 always there,鈥� Donica said.
Sixty-nine percent of school and district leaders said their school or district teaches keyboarding in some capacity, whether as a standalone course, a skill in the classroom, or both, according to a recent EdWeek Research Center survey.
69传媒 are most commonly teaching the skill to students in the late elementary and middle school grades, according to the survey: 84 percent of school and district leaders said their school or district teaches keyboarding in grades 3-5; the same percentage said their school or district teaches it in grades 6-8.
Keyboarding instruction is less common for students in grades K-2 and in high school. However, majorities of school and district leaders still say they offer it at those grade levels: 62 percent for K-2 and 57 percent for high school.
Typing instruction is necessary even in an age of ubiquitous digital devices, said Steve Simpson, director of technology integration and innovation at the Arlington school district in Texas, a school system of 56,000 students in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
鈥淚 would challenge anybody who鈥檚 a proficient keyboardist or typist, how they learned,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd the idea that you just pick it up by accident or through some kind of independent perseverance is kind of silly. It really does require a program that鈥檚 intuitively designed.鈥�
Online exams and cognitive benefits of proper keyboarding are driving typing instruction
Generally speaking, there are two main ways to type using a standard QWERTY keyboard.
There鈥檚 the proper form: placing all fingers along the keyboard鈥檚 home row, allowing someone to type without looking down. And there鈥檚 the hunt-and-peck style: a person uses mainly their index fingers to look for the keys they need.
Donica has found in her research that the fastest a person can type using the hunt-and-peck method is about 35 words per minute. Proper keyboarding can help someone reach 70 words per minute or more.
Speed and accuracy are helpful for students taking timed online tests. But the benefits that come from keyboarding go beyond saving time.
鈥淥nce a child learns how to [handwrite] letters, there鈥檚 less cognitive energy to write because they don鈥檛 have to sit and think about each stroke that they鈥檙e doing. It鈥檚 the same kinesthetic feature with the keyboard as well,鈥� Donica said. 鈥淥nce they know where those keys are and can quickly type them, it doesn鈥檛 take as much cognitive load to do so, so they鈥檙e able to get their thoughts out more freely.鈥�
鈥淵ou may even find that their thoughts are more complete,鈥� she added. 鈥淚 know we see that a lot in handwriting. Your sentences are longer in your paragraph if you don鈥檛 have to use that cognitive energy for the basic mechanics.鈥�
While some educators believed about 15 years ago that speech-to-text technology would eventually render keyboarding obsolete, most now agree it鈥檚 here to stay.
But the question that has long plagued schools and districts remains: When is the right time to teach keyboarding?
When to teach keyboarding can vary across schools
As far back as 1998, technology standards called for students to use keyboards 鈥渆fficiently and effectively鈥� by the end of 5th grade, according to past Education Week reporting.
Around that time, Utah was revising its technology guidelines to 鈥渟trongly suggest鈥� that keyboarding be taught in the 3rd grade, and even to 1st or 2nd graders who were ready, the state鈥檚 then-instructional technology coordinator told EdWeek in 1999.
Today, Utah鈥檚 state board of education has keyboarding standards for grades K-5 and requires 5th graders to take a keyboarding proficiency test that assesses whether they can type in proper form without looking at the keyboard instead of emphasizing a required speed or accuracy rate, said Ashley Higgs, an education specialist with the state board.
Utah is now updating its keyboarding standards again to set goals for individual grade levels rather than grade spans. The state also plans to expand the standards so they apply to 6th grade, given that a number of elementary schools include that grade level, Higgs said.
The emphasis in Utah on formal keyboarding instruction, such as proper finger placement, really kicks off at the same grade several other states emphasize: 3rd grade.
鈥淲hen do kids start being able to participate in music and being able to play instruments? Typically, it鈥檚 starting in grade 3, because they have that hand-eye coordination,鈥� Higgs said.
It鈥檚 also when students start taking standardized tests as required under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.
In general, Donica has seen schools invest time in younger grades on keyboard fundamentals鈥攍ike recognizing letters on the keyboard and their position. As students get older, they鈥檙e more likely to learn about typing using the home row.
鈥淚f we think developmentally about the students and where they are at those grade levels, it鈥檚 not a one-and-done skill. It is something that does need to be introduced and then scaffolded so that it is built up on for at least a few years so that they can master that skill and be efficient at it,鈥� Donica said.
69传媒 vary in how they teach keyboarding
Then, schools teach keyboarding in a variety of ways.
In the Arlington district, students use intervention and enrichment time to practice keyboarding using a self-paced and adaptive application from Learning.com, Simpson said.
In the Northbrook-Glenview School District 30 in the Chicago area, students learn keyboarding as a unit in grades 3 and 4.
The district sends parents information on the course and its expected outcomes ahead of time. It also provides students at-home access to the web-based keyboarding program they use at school, said Andrew Kohl, the district鈥檚 director of educational technology.
Before those classroom units, students start learning some of the basics鈥攑rimarily, that the keyboard doesn鈥檛 list letters in alphabetical order. Afterward, in middle school, the district doesn鈥檛 teach keyboarding, but middle school-students can access the keyboarding program 3rd and 4th grade students use if they need more practice.
Back at Rockvale Middle School in Tennessee, Parker has decided to go back to the classroom to teach computer-based classes, including reminding students of proper keyboarding technique.
鈥淩epetition is key. The more you type, the better you get it,鈥� she said. 鈥淭yping, it鈥檚 a skill. It鈥檚 something I鈥檝e always taught as a life skill.鈥�
