About Keyboarding Research
Consider this page your portal into a place where you can read about and discuss teaching keyboarding in the classroom. I have added this Keyboarding Research and Resources blog to the original website so that we can offer a database of the research and related articles.
Respond to these postings. Identify how they help you. Have you had experiences that relate to that posting? Do you have other research that is relevant to the ideas we presented?
Read Research:
This is a collection of references about keyboarding. The entries have been indexed by the Categories that you will see on the right.
Software and Hardware:
Find links to various types of Software and Hardware.
Dr. Z’s Points of View
Read Dr. Z’s Points of View about keyboarding. These may just be just ideas, or they may be the basis of an article that he is writing. Dr. Z’s Website
I sincerely hope that you find this website useful.
Leigh Zeitz, Ph.D.
(a.k.a. Dr. Z)
University of Northern Iowa
Send an email to Dr. Z at Leigh.Zeitz@uni.edu
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We have customers requesting research which addresses the use of SpeedSkin keyboard covers while using keyboarding software to ensure keyboard mastery. Also, they are curious about the recommended age/grade to use SpeedSkin covers in conjunction with keyboarding software. Thanks for any info you might provide. My phone: 800/558-7601.
President, SpeedSkin, LLC
Comment by Dee Jeffries — February 8, 2007 #
Is there a good way to learn the number pad?
Comment by Diane — March 10, 2007 #
Hi
I was wondering if you know of research into the measurement of the effect on productivity of poor typing skills in organisations. I am keen to convince my organisation to take on touch typing as a skill it should offer its employees but it would be great if I could say “It will increase productivity by x%” – has anyone done work in this area?
thanks
Comment by Peter — July 14, 2007 #
Thank you for the research you have published this is the first site I could find that gave me information about keyboarding. Once again Thank You!
Comment by Jennifer Casey — September 27, 2007 #
Thank you for doing this. Keyboarding is often viewed as boring, unnecessary drudgery. Many “new” computer teachers want to skip this step and move on to the “fun” stuff. As a former business education teacher turned technology facilitator, I have never changed my belief in the importance of students learning to properly keyboard to obtain fluency, but I admit that I have backed off for the past couple of years. It seemed like a losing battle. Recently, I’ve started hearing rumblings of recognition that just maybe keyboarding does have some value and that kids don’t come out of the womb knowing how to keyboard. Hopefully, the tide is changing back a bit.
Comment by Debra Resch — December 21, 2007 #
Thanks so much for the site – I haven’t had a ton of time to explore yet, but I plan to. I’m a elementary/middle school keyboarding teacher in WI (certified Business Education pre-K – 12). I also ordered your book!
Comment by Kate Olson — December 25, 2007 #
I teach “keyboarding” at a secondary school in a juvenile corrections facility. All of my students have had keyboarding in their schools and/or used computer programs that teach keyboarding. No one coming in knows how to touch keyboard; all have been unsuccessful and have a negative attitude toward keyboarding. I use a packet that teaches touch keyboarding, is individually paced, and emphasizes correct keyboarding technique. After the keys are mastered, I move on to paragraphing, reports, letters, etc. The low-students improve in their language skills and have a sense of pride in their accomplishments.
Comment by Nancy Gilbertson — February 15, 2008 #
I have been teaching Keyboarding for 36 years, first as a business teacher and now as a special educator. There are no gimmicks that work and no easy shortcut ways to learn the keyboard. That is why only 10 percent of people who use keyboards can touch type and are productively lower than they could be. It takes time and focus, and the time varies by student.
Comment by Nancy Gilbertson — February 15, 2008 #
I am a business teacher and teach some keyboarding classes. These classes are mainly 9th grade students. We spend 8 weeks introducing the keyboard and then 10 weeks teaching formatting of documents such as outlines, tables, reports, work cited pages, footnotes, etc. I believe this is a good semester course that meets 3 out of a 6 day cycle. It gives students the basics that will help them be successful when doing reports, etc.
Comment by Karen Monahan — March 18, 2008 #
The question has come up is a desktop keyboard (full keyboard) better to teach keyboarding than on a laptop? Is there any research on this?
Comment by Dennis — March 25, 2008 #
[...] About Keyboarding Research « Keyboarding Research & Resources [...]
Pingback by Updated EIT Links « CENotebook.com — June 23, 2008 #
Good job.
Interesting indeed.
Comment by Anna0 — August 4, 2008 #
Thanks for your comment about my downloadable typing games — wanted to point out that I’ve also got over 50 *online* games on my site — one page of easy (letters-only) games and a page of harder (words & symbols) games. Plus, you can play TuxType2 online……
http://www.auntlee.com/kids
I make a big effort to only link to sites that are kid-safe and that don’t have thousands of other links on the page to other games.
Comment by Aunt Lee — August 19, 2008 #
I just joined this forum and wanted to say i’m glad to be a new member.
I hope I can contribute some of my knowledge here.
Thanks & love.
Comment by seveOberden — October 17, 2008 #
I’ve borrowed Dr. Z’s book from my local public library, and I’m finding it’s both a fantastic “how-to” book for beginning keyboarders and an excellent resource to help increase efficiency and accuracy for those who’ve already got keyboarding skills more or less down pat.
I’m going to buy my own copy.
Comment by Antonio Pilla — November 1, 2008 #
Looking for any tips to break the cycle of bad keyboarding habits with middle school students
Comment by Yvonne Moore — February 13, 2009 #
I found this blog very interesting and could relate to some of the comments. I too was a Business teacher and now a Computer Tech. teacher and feel keyboarding is almost out the window. I use to teach keyboarding at the college level and now can barely fit it into my curriculum at the middle school level. For some reason, people feel that students are just born to know how to type properly. Of course this is not the case and practice is the only way to learn how to type properly and quickly. I still am a firm believer that we need to keep keyboarding in the curriculum and even at the high school level!!
Comment by Janet Burzyk — April 15, 2009 #
I have used both drills and Type to Learn 3 with my students over the years. I found Dr. Z’s pointers very interesting. One approach I have never used during the many years I have taught keyboarding is covering the keyboard. It seems Dr. Z’s testing shows that the students that learned by covering the keybaord the end results were a faster typist than the ones that did not cover the keyboard. I may try this out with my class. I also highly recommend Type to Learn 3. It is a great motivator to learn how to type for middle school youngsters!
Comment by Janet Burzyk — April 17, 2009 #
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Pingback by 500+ Blogs on Educational Blogging | Webmaster 9 — July 1, 2009 #
i just purchased Dr Zeitz book and find it very informative, im ready to get started.
Comment by john hemingway — July 20, 2009 #
John Hemingway,
I am glad to hear that you have purchased my book. I would be interested in hearing your comments on the book and how it addresses your needs in learning to keyboard.
Z
Comment by Leigh Zeitz — August 2, 2009 #
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.
Comment by sandrar — September 10, 2009 #
Does anyone know of any documented research material on the importance of Keyboarding.
Also, what have you found to be the most effective grade to introduce Keyboarding?
Comment by S. Elmore — October 11, 2009 #
Hi Leigh,
Thanks for the comment! I have been referring parents to your site all week during parent teacher conferences. It is by far the best collection of typing sites out there. We begin typing practice for 15 minutes a week using Type to Learn, Jr. in first grade and in second grade, they graduate to Type to Learn 3. Unfortunately, a lot of kids are getting no reinforcement at home. I might also take you up on the advice to cover the keyboard..that is one thing we don’t do at my school! Thanks for visiting my blog…
Comment by Kim Zimmer — October 23, 2009 #