Free Typing App in Mac Store

I remember back in the day that playing Mavis Beacon was the way you learned how to type. We'd gather in a computer lab and try to race around the keyboard and finish the lesson as quickly as we possibly could. It wasn't awesome, but we needed to learn how to type and it was the standard method. Now that teachers have so much other tasks to do, typing skills have been pushed further and further down the list. Have you seen how some of our students type?!? I'll admit that I don't touch type. I typed transcripts at the ripe old age of 12 and I learned to type as fast as I could in order to get the job done and be able to stop listening to my boss' voice on the tapes over and over again. But I know that understanding how to type well and accurately is simply not a skill the majority of our students have.


This morning I came across a typing application called Typist that is available for free in the Mac App Store. There are several different "paths" that you can take in the application including Standard, Quick, and Speed Drills.


I know that many of you don't feel that this would necessarily apply to your classroom. But typing is a skillset that our students need to have regardless of how they get it. So, imagine having your students install Typist and then use it when they have down time, such as after completing an assignment or if you manage to cover the day's material before the end of class. You could even go so far as to tell them to work on the Quick track and then record what level they are on to challenge each other to get higher or the Speed track and see who can type the fastest. I know that suggesting there is time to do this is a challenge, but it would be a good skill to have our students work on should there be the opportunity.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Empowering Students with Choice Boards

Image
An example of a student choice menu that has students chose one item from each "course". I've been working with a teacher lately who has struggled with her students completing a summative paper in her class. This trimester, we're working together to find a way to increase buy in and hopefully have a higher percentage of students complete the project. While investigating options for her, the first thing that came to mind was using a choice board or learning menu to enable her students to select the method that would work best for them rather than prescribing a multimedia project. There are a wide range of ways that you can put choice boards in to action. Tic-Tac-Toe, Menus, Choice Board... there are lots of different words to use to search for them. But the premise for all of them is the same. Give your students a selection of options to chose from and let them go with it. Beyond hopefully boosting engagement, the teacher gets the added benefit of not have a ga
Read more

How fast are you? Ok, how fast is your internet??

With a week left in October, it'd be awesome if we got more teachers (and students) at our schools to click on the link in the message below to do a free one minute SchoolSpeedTest! It only takes a minute and we'd love to get more data. Thank you for your help! As we continue our October SpeedTest Month, we'd like to thank all of you that have participated in the School Speed Tests.  So far, we have had over 60% of Maine districts take part, with some schools performing over 150 tests so far!  However, we still have some districts and schools that have yet to take part.  The good news is that there is still plenty of time to do so!  All we're asking is that each school in your district perform 10-20 tests before the end of the month! As a reminder, participating schools will receive SchoolSpeedTest data that will help find network bottlenecks, support network planning, demonstrate the need for increased connectivity/hardware funding and support your district readin
Read more

Backwards Educational Technology Flowchart

Image
I think by now every who has followed this blog knows that I take in a TON of information each day in hopes of finding you information that I deem to be useful to pass along to make your day easier. I feel a bit like a clearing house in that regard. Many have told me that technology is awesome, but that it is so hard to determine what tool to use and when not to mention learn how to use it. Fortunately for you, that's pretty much my job (so use me!). In a recent summary of links from the Diigo education group, a member had posted a link to Katie M. Ritter's Backwards EdTech Flowchart. Once I read her post, which you can read by clicking here , I knew that I had to pass along her flowchart to you guys, too. The basic premise of her flowchart is simple: decide what you want to do and the flowchart will help guide you to the tool you could use (including links to all of them). It's a pretty well thought out flowchart and especially useful for those of you who are just starti
Read more