Elementary Typing Dilemma- I have probz.

3 years ago we ditched the elementary computer lab (which I still lament at times) and I changed from a "related arts teacher" to a "technology coach." Picking up the coaching model has had great results in the elementary school in taking giant strides in seeing technology integration. All grade levels use the iPad carts for some level of instruction (but that's a whole other blog post in the making).

The one thing that seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle between routine tech classes and "as needed" tech teaching/support is KEYBOARDING. Research shows that the best way to implement keyboarding is for students to get in 20 completely engaged minutes 3 days a week. Even when I was a related arts teacher, that didn't happen but grades 1-5 got anywhere from 20-35 minutes once a week for the entire school year back then.

We've had 3 years since the lab disappeared. In year 1, we just dropped keyboarding but by the end of the year it was obvious to me and to the teachers that this was a mistake. When a teacher assigned just one paragraph of typing, being in that classroom watching students hunt and peck like chickens and ask "Where's the question mark?" made my skin crawl, my eye twitch, and my pride yell "NOOOOO!" And as predicted, the next school year the sixth grade teachers begged me to find a way to put keyboarding back into the curriculum.

Last year I sat down with 4th and 5th grade teachers and thanks to their ability to see the need for keyboarding instruction, they figured out a way to get it back into the curriculum for 6 weeks. The problem is, they all had to give up valuable instructional time to do it. As flexible as this was of them, I realized it wasn't fair for me to limit their instructional time for this. And whether you believe me or not, keyboarding doesn't teach itself even if there are great technology resources out there. Most of this article resonants with my heart right now.

So this year I thought we had an answer and I was so very excited. Keyboarding would be brought into the Library/Technology Related Arts rotation but this just isn't happening well for a myriad of reasons, including my failure to follow up on a regular basis. The bottom line is the rotation schedule truly limits how much time can be used for keyboarding. When I look at what is best for our students, I have to be honest and say a love of reading is more important to me than fast typing skills. (It hurt to type that a bit though because it feels like I'm giving up).

My desire is that my fifth graders leave elementary school typing 25 words per minute or faster. If they can do that, they will be able to type faster than they can write and in our 1:1 environment, that's imperative. Maybe it will just happen this year with my fifth graders because they had 6 week so f instruction last year and they all have iPads for instruction this year with required to bring keyboards. I just don't know!

Do I need access to more technology? Do I need a stand-alone keyboarding instruction time? Do I just ask parents to have students practice keyboarding as part of homework (I HATE this idea)? Do I set minimum typing wpm expectations for grade level and leave it up to families? Do I force it? Do I let it go? Do I limp along this year and come up with a better plan for next year? I don't want to lose what the coaching model does for our school- if I start teaching it weekly it has the potential to change what I have worked hard to achieve for the last three years.

The struggle is real and the answers aren't clear. Any suggestions/ideas are appreciated!

Julie Davis: Blending Classroom Learning Since 2007.

If you are old like me and learned how to type on an IBM Selectric (or something like that), you remember your typing teacher standing in the front of the classroom saying something like..."A, A, A, A, S, S, S, S, D, D, D, D, F, F, F, F" and so on for a monotonous 50 minutes of instruction. I can still hear Mrs. Pendergrass droning off all the letters as she multitasked from doing it for so many years.

Fast forward to 2006ish: I started teaching keyboarding to elementary students at my current school. Their form of instruction looked a bit different- instead of me droning the letters for them to type, my students worked in "Type to Learn Jr.," "Type to Learn," or "New Keys for Kids." I sat in the back of the room and worked on things for other classes and walked around the class making sure the students were on task and typing with the correct fingers. It drove me insane! I was bored out of my mind as a teacher and I had very little interaction with my students. So I made a change.

I googled other options for ways of teaching keyboarding and I was intrigued by a method I found that was targeting special populations to boost their writing skills. I bought the Diana King: Keyboarding Skills book and quickly realized I did not want the book to become the instructor but there was a section in it that book that kept my (and other educators) attention. I adopted, and then adapted, the alphabetic sequencing "jingle" written in the book as one of the ways I would instruct the students as well.

Like any teacher worth their salt,  I always wondered which form of instruction worked the best for my students. In 2006 I had to choose a research project for my masters degree in Instructional Technology. At that time,  I taught 3 sections of grade 1-5 once a week, a grade a day. It was time to actually test to see what method of learning worked best.

I took one grade level and taught the class three different ways:

• Class A was taught using instructional technology only (Type to Learn)
• Class B was taught using a teacher-led approach only (Diana King Method Jingle)
• Class C was taught using a combination of the above (Blended Learning)

After  several weeks of instruction, students were then evaluated/tested to see which method (if any) showed the greatest WPM (words per minute) for these students. I then ran the data through the available statistical software and with the help of my statistics professor (because I was clueless on reading the data), I found that only class C (Blended Learning) showed a significant positive effect on student learning. It was 2007- for the next 4 years I taught using that method whenever I taught keyboarding.

Blended learning is getting a lot of attention these days as teachers are seeing more and more significantly good options for using technology as a teaching tool enter the market. Quite honestly, it is no surprise to me. I ran the data years ago. 

As the school year starts in a few days, I look forward to helping teachers blend their classroom. I believe technology will never replace the value of a great teacher and the emotional and social  interactions they share with their students. I do believe good teachers are learning every day that there are technology options to help them better their classrooms by personalizing the needs of their students through differentiation and the ability to self-pace. I am looking forward to being a part of this process!

Ten Things Elementary Students Should Know about Tech by 5th grade

This list is in no particular order and is definitely based on my humble opinion. That being said, if I teach your child...my goal is to teach all these things from a Christian perspective.

1. Touch typing keyboarding. Elementary students should be typing at least 20 words per minute at the end of fifth grade. That is the minimum speed where typing is faster than writing. We have devoted time in the curriculum for this but curriculum time is limited. If you're a parent, find a free online typing test and check your child's speed. If they are below 20wpm, use a free resource to help them reach this speed, www.typingweb.com is a good choice.

2. Troubleshooting. By the end of fifth grade, your child should have a thought bank of resources when things don't go right when using technology. For instance: how to refresh a web page, what to do look for if you can't log onto something using their user names and passwords, what to do when a bluetooth keyboard won't respond. These are all skills that will help them in life. It is our tendency to take a device out of their hands, fix it, and hand it back. We should be teaching our students how to critically think and solve their own problems.

3. Digital citizenship. The minimum age requirement for many social media sites is 13 years old. Most fifth graders have not yet reached that age. Therefore, it is the perfect time to teach students about digital citizenship issues regarding social media, bullying, online etiquette, safety, and communication skills.

4. Device basics. Every student should have the following basic knowledge of their device of choice:

• Power on/off
• Adjust volume up/down/mute
• Select appropriate WiFi network
• Log in to school email account
• Plug in headphones
• Open web-browser to access internet
• Take a picture
• Take a video
• Switch between front- and rear-facing cameras
• Bookmark a website & add shortcut to home screen
• Take a screenshot
• Access photos and videos on device

5. Citing. Students should know how to give credit where credit is due. Using a citing website (such as Noodlebib), a fifth grader should be able to collect the information needed from websites, books, or photos and enter it into the appropriate form to create a reference page.

6. Toolbelt of presentation options. Due to various projects through their elementary school years, fifth graders should have a variety of presentation tools that they feel comfortable with when asked to present information. This includes but not limited to: Google docs, Google Slides, Keynote, Pages, DoInk Green Screen, Tellagami, Explain Everything, Idea Sketch, Visualize.

7. How to do a proper Internet search. Fifth grade students should be taught the virtues and shortcomings of doing a Google search and how to best use Google for their educational benefit. Students should know how to use age-appropriate search engines for research projects including but not limited to: Ebsco-host research engines, encyclopedias, children friendly websites, etc.

8. How to collaborate using technology. Students should learn how to use websites/apps such as Google docs to share information with each other and teachers via both comments and adding straight to a shared document itself both while sitting together and separate.

9. Use technology to organize their learning. Students should be able to use technology tools such as Google drive to set up folders to store information "in the cloud" for easy access for learning, Notability to take notes from lectures, and have the ability to take photos of things for future studying opportunities.

10. The perils of misuse and multitasking and how it affects them individually. Fifth graders should be taught about their digital rights and responsibilities regarding both personal and educational perspectives. They should be shown how multitasking affects them and be given appropriate aid to help them discern how technology can benefit or distract from their learning.