How do kids learn to touch-type?

April 5, 2009 4:44 PM

How do kids learn to touch-type these days? Do they learn predominately through school? Or do they learn it themselves, eg through instant chat, etc?

I learned to touch type by doing 2 semester-long courses in Grade 9. Do they still bother with these courses? Or do kids learn by themselves at an early age?

posted by tomargue to Education (37 answers total)

At least some of the kids I know learned through touch-typing software--Mavis Beacon and similar.
posted by Sidhedevil at 4:54 PM on April 5, 2009

I learned through games.
posted by davidamann at 4:55 PM on April 5, 2009

I took regular keyboarding classes throughout middle school (sixth through eighth grades), and we used software akin to Mavis Beacon. We had computer classes all during elementary school as well, but those were primarily focused on... actually, come to think of it, I'm not entirely sure what the point was. Playing a lot of Number Munchers, I suppose.

Anyway, I always did all the keyboarding exercises (which I credit for my very fast typing), but I don't think anyone else actually did -- I seem to recall most people not even bothering. In which case I'd imagine they just learned via necessity for IM, etc.
posted by punchdrunkhistory at 5:00 PM on April 5, 2009

I learnt through Mavis Beacon at around age 7. It was just a good game to me.
My cousins who are a few years younger learnt more organically, just as a side-effect of typing many things.
posted by peacheater at 5:02 PM on April 5, 2009

In sixth grade (1995), we played Mario Teaches Typing. We had a more traditional typing class in 7th grad e(where we copied passages out of a workbook), but by then I was surfing the internet all the time and could touch type.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 5:03 PM on April 5, 2009 [2 favorites]

I know of one school district where the elementary school librarian teaches keyboarding skills to the students during their weekly time in the library using software games, etc. However, my observation is that many students quickly forget (neglect?) the "proper" keyboarding methods, and become proficient using whatever comes naturally when using programs by themselves (e.g. chat as you mentioned). So it's sort of a combination of both, depending on the individuals' interest in and access to computers.
posted by ThyroidBob at 5:03 PM on April 5, 2009

I learned in a keyboard class in 4th grade (back in mid-eighties). The final test was the keyboard under a "veil" so to speak, so we couldn't cheat and look at our hands. These days, I'm one of the few people I know who type with their fingers on the "correct" keys and not looking at the keyboard. None of the younger members of my family (or their friends I've met) type in a very productive way. Their fingers are all over the board and they're always looking down. Kinda drives me nuts since I was taught that each finger is for specific keys.
posted by Lullen at 5:12 PM on April 5, 2009

I'm a 20-something, and I suffered through typing class (DOS based software!) in kindergarten through 5th grade at a midwestern private school during the mid to late 90s. My typing teacher got the last laugh as I now tend to be the first person to finishing typing up computer programming assignments.

The local middle schools uses typing software (Type to Learn?), and I'm guessing that the elementary schools do as well.
posted by niles at 5:20 PM on April 5, 2009

I took typing classes in high school, but what really taught me to touch-type (and stop looking at my hands) was using instant messaging software.
posted by Fleebnork at 5:23 PM on April 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

There are formal lessons in elementary school, and it's glossed over in high school business classes. Yet the amount of time spent on touch-typing in class is so small compared to the amount of typing kids do nowadays that few people of my generation (college-age) touch-type the "proper" way. Kids develop their own style and it usually works fairly well for them. For instance, typing is second nature to me - I can do it quickly and without looking - yet my hands fly all over the keyboard.
posted by wsp at 5:32 PM on April 5, 2009

(On second thought, maybe I didn't have typing class in kindergarten, but you get my point)
posted by niles at 5:46 PM on April 5, 2009

We learned typing during "computer studies" class in high school (mid 90's). It was some kind of stand-alone Mac thing - I remember it was on a Mac because the kids in class used the little note app to gossip anonymously.
posted by edrnjevich at 6:00 PM on April 5, 2009

Oh, and thanks to that class, I do touch type the "proper" way (like wsp mentioned above), and I'm quite fast.

I didn't have a lot of exposure to prolonged typing before that - those were the dark days before the internet and whatnot.
posted by edrnjevich at 6:02 PM on April 5, 2009

I tried classes, but instant messenging/chatrooms is what finally got me typing quickly. I spent WAY too much time doing it, to the point where it actually started negatively impacting my life, but I did get pretty damn fast.
posted by Doctor Suarez at 6:12 PM on April 5, 2009

I also took keyboarding class in middle school but honed my skills on IM.
posted by danb at 6:43 PM on April 5, 2009

I just taught myself. Which is why I have some "bad" habits. Whatever -- I'm still faster than many who went through formal typing class.
posted by randomstriker at 6:46 PM on April 5, 2009

In sixth grade (1995), we played Mario Teaches Typing. We had a more traditional typing class in 7th grad e(where we copied passages out of a workbook), but by then I was surfing the internet all the time and could touch type.

OMG so that's what it's called! I played the exact same game in school when I was seven or so, but I had completely forgotten the name. "That Mario-ish game..."

I also went through Typing Tutor Platinum at home; my mom bought it to try and improve her typing, and my brother and I competed obsessively for high scores. Good times.

Of course my typing improved loads more when I started playing MMOs and IMing, but I think that was the base. I still use more or less the "correct" methods for typing rather than the two-finger hunt-and-peck some of my friends use.
posted by Xany at 7:05 PM on April 5, 2009

I switched schools during my elementary years and inadvertently missed the typing class offered at both of them. The need to type papers for class and of course IM'ing taught me everything.
posted by andythebean at 8:05 PM on April 5, 2009

Response by poster:
Very interesting that there seems to be a lot of people who honed their skills through IM / not through tutors. Not what I expected.
posted by tomargue at 8:21 PM on April 5, 2009

I'm in my early-to-mid-twenties and learned at home using Mavis Beacon. I don't recall there being any sort of mandatory classes in school. Actually, I don't even know if there was an optional class... maybe in high school, but who wants to spend a whole class on keyboarding then, when there are so few chances to choose what you take?
posted by musicinmybrain at 8:34 PM on April 5, 2009

I took a few typing classes back in middle school with the proper hand arrangements (I'm 24). These were moderately useful, and reinforced informally with all the hours I've logged since then chatting, internet surfing, etc..

Most of the younger kids I know who type quickly learned from instant messaging, emails, and web journals (livejournal, xanga).
posted by gushn at 8:43 PM on April 5, 2009

like couple others already said . . . I started learning in elementary school through mavis beacon and that sort of stuff, but I wasn't great because the lessons were sporadic and I never used my typings skills much. Then, I think we got AOL when I was about 14 and all my 'proper' typing skills went out the window. Now I have this utterly ridiculous style where i use my thumb and first two fingers on the right, and only my index finger on the left. It looks crazy when I type but i'm fast. (it probably looks crazier because I'm so fast.) I wish I had mastered the proper style, though, I actually have a lot of trouble switching between mac and PC keyboards. (i think mac keyboards have smaller keys.) anyway i think it would be less of an issue if i typed properly, because each of my fingers wouldn't be moving so far. I keep randomly thinking to myself that I should try to learn, but I never do.

You learn a skill best by total immersion. When you're fourteen and just discovered instant messaging, chatrooms and message boards . . . that is total immersion :-) i feel lucky that I didn't have it around when I was any younger than that. I've heard horror stories of kids nowadays not knowing a thing about puntionation/ spelling (your = ur?) so God only knows what their typing skills are like. They probably text faster than they type.
posted by lblair at 8:56 PM on April 5, 2009

sorry . . . to answer your question more directly, I very much doubt a 9th grade typing class still exists or would be useful. These kids have probably all had myspace accounts and AIM since at least middle school. It would be like teaching sex ed to college sophomores.

(Although, now that I think of it, it might be good to have such a class correct the bad habits. But I am sure by grade 9 most kids are typing fast, and improperly.)
posted by lblair at 8:59 PM on April 5, 2009

Not sure how far back "kids these days" goes, but we did Mavis Beacon in 5th grade- circa 1997. Oddly, in my elementary school, we did basic programming (LOGO et al) but no typing lessons.

Mavis Beacon definitely helped lay the foundation for fluent touch-typing, though the introduction of teh internets (and AIM) to my house a few years later was what made it click.
posted by charmcityblues at 9:44 PM on April 5, 2009

play a MUD. It requires relatively error-free typing in a variety of contexts, typically as fast as you can. A few of my friends can type upwards of 120 wpm, which tops the how-fast-can-you-type websites, and they all got good at typing by MUDding.
posted by duende at 9:57 PM on April 5, 2009

Response by poster:
Hahha lblair...."like teahing sex ed to college sophomores".

I wonder what percentage of schools do actually bother to offer keyboarding classes? I guess it's probably done in elementary rather than high-school these days.

As a side note, I read somewhere that North Carolina (and Texas, New York and a few other states) requires that school graduates pass a computer skills exam that includes a touch-typing exam...so I guess they'd have to offer classes.
posted by tomargue at 10:12 PM on April 5, 2009

I learned through MSN & AIM. My parents could hear the change in my typing patterns from a few rooms away, so whenever I was on chat instead of working on a paper they would yell, "go back to work." But it made me a very fast typer.
posted by devilsbrigade at 10:37 PM on April 5, 2009

I am twenty and learned through some random typing software my mother gave to me for my ninth birthday or so (JumpStart Typing?). Ever since, I have typed extremely quickly. I was given lessons in middle school and high school that usually involved an opaque plastic keyboard cover to hide the keys -- for those that needed the instruction the most, the handicap proved to be so frustrating as to hinder both their touch-typing development and motivation to get better.
posted by ccrazy88 at 12:46 AM on April 6, 2009

I am thirty and there weren't really any typing classes as such when I was at school in the UK (where school = education up to the age of 18).

I learnt when I discovered the internet at university, when I was forced to learn to type quickly because of the volume of email I wanted to send. I then leveraged this skill into various secretarial jobs after university, when I developed more 'proper' keyboard usage (limited to keeping my fingers near the home keys; I'm sure my technique is not orthodox).

Now I do higher-level work which still involves a lot of typing, and my typing speed is not an obstacle, even though my thinking speed might be.
posted by altolinguistic at 1:26 AM on April 6, 2009

I spent about a month on "All The Right Type" in grade 7 before I moved away. This is about two classes per week, for an hour at a time. After that, I knew the basics of homerow and had good habits about how to place my hands etc, so typing didn't seem as daunting of a task anymore. I learned to type quickly through writing - I didn't get IM until after I got into FanFiction, and typing out a chapter per day after school at around 1000 words, minimum, got my speed up rather quickly.

I don't know why you're surprised by the data about IM-ing. Typing isn't inherently difficult, and practice matters a hell of a lot more about any form of advanced technique. IM is something enjoyable for people in my generation, so they'll do more of it, and improve their typing.
posted by Phire at 3:05 AM on April 6, 2009

I'm 24 (do I count as a kid these days?) and I learned to type at home. When I was in elementary school I played a lot of computer games, including a typing game featuring a ghost who would move things around faster and faster depending on your typing speed and accuracy (maybe it was made by Sierra?), and I typed up school reports, etc. But it was mostly message boards and IM chatting that really made my typing, and I started doing those things around middle school.

I'm not sure we ever learned to type in school - we used computers from grade one, but I don't recall typing instruction. As far as I can remember, my peers and I all just knew, at least enough to get by.
posted by CtrlAltDelete at 5:55 AM on April 6, 2009

At my high school, I was a member of the last class to learn to type on Selectrics rather than PCs. This was 1989 or so.
posted by box at 6:15 AM on April 6, 2009

Typing Tutor, thank you otherwise useless 11th grade keyboarding and word processing course!
posted by futureisunwritten at 6:27 AM on April 6, 2009

My 13-year-old daughter picked it up on her own--she's an incredibly fast typer now, having grown up around computers and IM and texting and such.

It's really pretty amazing to see her go. One thing that really sticks out is how she uses the mouse on her laptop. It's optical, and she usually doesn't have a flat surface around, so she'll use it directly on the keyboard. I mean, why not, right? But as someone who didn't grow up wtih computers, and used a balled mouse for so many years, I'm always amazed by that, for some reason.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:58 AM on April 6, 2009

24 here, and no formal instruction in typing until high school, junior year I think (1999-2000). We had to have one semester on actual typewriters with whiteout and the whole shebang before we could take a computer keyboarding class. I had a hard time not looking at the keys back then, but the following summer I spent a lot of time online for the first time (oh, AOL).

The computer was in my mom's bedroom and while I was allowed to be on it after she went to bed, because it was so late, the lights were always off. My progress sped up much more rapidly after that and I still continue to use a fairly orthodox "home row" method; my biggest deviation from that norm has always been which fingers I use to hold down the Shift key (pinkies, but generally the one on the same hand as whatever hand I'm using for the letter; I was always taught to use the opposite but it never stuck for some reason).
posted by miratime at 7:36 AM on April 6, 2009

I'm 23 now. In 5th grade we had typing every Friday(?). Someone would wheel in a cart of electronic typewriter things with tiny keyboards and you'd work through lessons on the screen. I don't know why we didn't go down to the computer lab, as during the week we also had lab time. 5th grade is also when some papers would have to be typed. I remember specifically the DARE final essay was one, and we got the aforementioned computer lab time for it. It wasn't until 7th grade when I got on IM that I had any speed. I never had any formalized typing classes past elementary school.
posted by lizjohn at 1:27 PM on April 6, 2009

When I was in elementary school in the early nineties I had lab time where I learned to type (Mavis Beacon) and play Oregon Trail (Apple II era). I also dorked out on the PC at home, so I probably learned a bit there too.
By the computer classes in middle school, I remember never having typing issues and it being second nature to me. By then we moved to Macs with fancy graphical Mavis Beacon with the driving-by-typing simulator.
posted by ijoyner at 4:00 PM on April 6, 2009