Touch typing is a valuable skill that allows individuals to type without looking at the keyboard, relying on muscle memory to locate keys. This technique, often involving placing fingers on the home row keys, can significantly improve typing speed and accuracy.
Definition of Touch Typing:
Touch typing is the ability to type without looking at the keyboard. This skill relies on muscle memory to locate keys and involves placing the eight fingers on the middle row of the keyboard, known as the home keys. The correct technique involves positioning the left hand with the little finger on the “A” key and the index finger on the “F” key, while the right hand’s index finger rests on the “J” key and the little finger on the semicolon key.
Factors Influencing Learning Time
The time it takes to learn touch typing varies widely based on several factors:
Concentration: Students with higher concentration levels will learn faster, as touch typing requires focus and persistence.
Motivation: A motivated student is more likely to practice regularly and see the benefits of touch typing, leading to quicker mastery.
Age: Younger students may take longer due to smaller hand sizes and shorter attention spans. Typically, starting at age eight is recommended.
Learning Differences: Students with learning difficulties such as dyslexia or dyspraxia may require more time and a tailored learning approach.
Estimated Learning Time
For an average student without learning differences, the time to learn touch typing can be broken down into stages based on words per minute (WPM) achieved:
Bronze Standard (15 WPM): Approximately 10 hours of practice.
Silver Standard (25 WPM): Around 30 hours of practice.
Gold Standard (40 WPM): About 70 hours of practice, allowing the student to type faster than handwriting.
Benefits of Touch Typing
Touch typing offers numerous benefits, including:
Improved Productivity: Faster and more accurate typing increases work efficiency.
Reduced Risk of Injury: Proper technique minimizes repetitive strain injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome.
Versatility: Easily adapt to typing on various devices without looking at the keyboard.
Increased Accuracy: Less reliance on visual cues reduces typing errors.
Support for Learning Differences: Helps students with dyslexia and other challenges type more accurately and efficiently.
Tips and Strategies for Learning Touch Typing
To master touch typing, consider the following tips:
Start with the Home Row: Practice the letters on the home row until you can type them without looking.
Use Typing Games and Exercises: These can make practice fun and help improve speed and accuracy.
Position Your Hands Correctly: Ensure your fingers are on the home keys, thumbs on the space bar, and index fingers on “F” and “J”.
Take Breaks: Regular breaks prevent strain and fatigue.
Use a Typing Tutor: Software programs like Typewiz provide structured lessons and exercises.
Practice Regularly: Consistent practice, even a few minutes daily, will improve your typing skills over time.
Typewiz: An Innovative Way to Learn Touch Typing
Typewiz is an engaging online typing tutor designed for kids, offering a fun and interactive learning experience. Features include:
Avatars and Games: Students earn coins to play games as they progress.
Performance Badges: Bronze, Silver, and Gold badges motivate students by marking their progress.
Visual Guides: Realistic hands and green fingers show the correct keys to press.
Progress Tracking: Students can view their scores and WPM statistics.
Typewiz is self-paced and can be used at home or in a classroom, with professional tutors available in Searsol centers in Ireland or online. A free seven-day trial is available for those interested.
For more information, visit www.typewiz.com.
Typewiz.com – a new innovative way to learn how to touch type!
We were recently why was there still a need to touch type in the 21st century. It was a good question and with the advent of new technologies, such as smartphones, tablets, hybrid laptops and text to speech. Maybe there isn’t such a need for touch-typing or was there?
Hunt and Peck
The hunt and peck typing method is a very popular method to input text on the keyboard. This is where a person types but moves his fingers around the keyboard until the find the correct letters. Where a person can type sufficiently using the hunt and peck method, it is still error-prone and can reduce the efficiency of the person typing compared to a person who can touch type.
Touch typing/keyboarding
Touch typing (also called keyboarding) is typing without using the sense of sight to find the keys. Specifically, a touch typist will know their location on the keyboard through muscle memory. In today’s competitive job market, it is important for anyone applying for any job that involves the use of computers to learn to touch type. And it is not stretching it to suggest being able to type fast without looking at the keyboard is a 21st-century basic skill in computers.
Advantages of touch typing
The main advantages of touch typing are as follows:
Speed
Touch typing training can improve an individual’s typing speed and accuracy dramatically. The accepted average typing speed is 40 WPM (words per minute), professional career typists can exceed 100 WPM repeatedly and continuously (secretarial, data entry, etc.). Every individual learns at a different pace, and routine practice is required to maintain a high typing speed and accuracy.
Reduced switching of attention
A touch typist does not need to look down at the keyboard (that is obscured with fingers and maybe poorly lit) and other areas that require attention. This increases productivity and reduces the number of errors.
Overall the payback from learning how to touch type outways the inefficiency of other input methods. Once you have the skill it will stay with you for the rest of your life. So how do you start to touch-type? Why not try our seven days free trial of our typing tutor Typewiz? For more information go to www.typewiz.com
Touch typing (also called keyboarding) is typing without using the sense of sight to find the keys. Specifically, a touch typist will know their location on the keyboard through muscle memory. In today’s competitive job market, it is important for anyone applying for any job that involves the use of computers to learn to touch type. And it is not stretching it to suggest being able to type fast without looking at the keyboard is a 21st-century basic skill in computers.
Voice-recognition software allows you to convert voice to text. This has been available on computers and software such as Dragon Software, Text Aloud or Express scribe has allowed computer users to convert voice to text. But put it on a smartphone, and it comes to life. All of the frustrations of trying to control your PC by voice, fiddling for a microphone, repeating yourself, again and again, resisting the urge to relent and turn to your trusty keyboard.
These are eliminated when you use the same technology on your mobile phone. Mobile apps such as Google voice, Vlingo and Siri have allowed people to convert voice to text on the go with ease. So is the new way of doing things and should we not bother to learn how to type as these apps are doing the same job as typing?
The main disadvantage of voice recognition software are as follows:
Lack of Accuracy and Misinterpretation
Voice recognition software won’t always put your words on the screen completely accurately. Programs cannot understand the context of language the way that humans can, leading to errors that are often due to misinterpretation. When you talk to people, they decode what you say and give it a meaning. Voice recognition software can do this but may not be capable of choosing the correct meaning. For example, it cannot always differentiate between homonyms, such as “their” and “there.” It may also have problems with slang, technical words and acronyms.
Time Costs and Productivity
You might think that computerising a process speeds it up, but this isn’t necessarily true of voice recognition systems, and you may have to invest more time than you expected into the process. You’ll have to factor in time to review and edit to correct errors. Some programs adapt to your voice and speech patterns over time; this may slow down your workflow until the program is up to speed. You’ll also have to learn how to use the system. For example, you must find the right pace and tone — if you talk too fast or indistinctly, you’ll increase spelling and grammar errors. Getting used to using a system’s commands and speaking punctuation out loud is not always easy. This can affect the flow and speed of your speech.
Accents and speech recognition
Voice recognition systems can have problems with accents. Even though some may learn to your speech patterns over time, you have to learn to talk consistently and clearly at all times to minimize errors. If you mumble, talk too fast or run words into each other, the software will not always be able to cope. Programs may also have problems recognizing speech as normal if your voice changes, say when you have a cold, cough, sinus or throat problem.
Background Noise Interference
To get the best out of voice recognition software, you need a quiet environment. Systems don’t work so well if there is a lot of background noise. They may not be able to differentiate between your speech, other people talking and other ambient noise, leading to transcription mix-ups and errors. This can cause problems if you work in a busy office or a noisy environment. Wearing microphones or noise-cancelling headsets can help voice recognising software reduce the effects of noise.
Physical Side Effects
If you use voice recognition technology frequently, you may experience some physical discomfort and vocal problems. Talking for extended periods can cause hoarseness, dry mouth, muscle fatigue, temporary loss of voice and vocal strain. The fact that you aren’t talking naturally may make this worse and you may need to learn how to protect your voice if you’ll use a program regularly.
To summarise voice recognition can have its benefits, such as being able to input voice to text on the go using smartphones. But the main disadvantages outline above makes voice technology a handy add on to the basic input of touch typing. So there will always be a need to touch type. Why not learn how to touch typing using our online typing tutor Typewiz designed specifically for children? More details are available on Typewiz.com Searsol provides touch typing courses in check out the nearest typing centre near you by clicking on the following link.
As every parent knows it is difficult to be a teacher and parent with your child. While a parents role is to nourish, encourage and motivate your child achievements. A teachers job is to instil a routine of learning that helps a student learn their subject in the easiest way based on the student’s abilities. Where the problem arises is when you become both the teacher and the parent.
The problem is that sometimes you be in your best attention try too hard to encourage your child to learn a subject, that you become the pushy parent and your child rebels and won’t listen to you. The end result is that your child doesn’t learn and it is up not learning the subject matter that you wanted them to learn. It really depends on your relationship with your child, your teaching abilities and the child focus on success and motivation to learn a subject.
To learn touch typing requires effort and dedication. A student would need to put in the least 20 hours of solid learning before they will be able to master the keyboard. Even then their speed would be quite slow but they would be aware of the keyboard buttons and be able to select them without looking at them.
As a parent, if you want your child to learn to touch type, the options are as follows:
Hope that your school teaches touch typing as part of the computer curriculum. Most schools don’t so best check with your school on this.
Learn how to touch type at home. This is a great idea but it really depends on your child and set about a dedicated time to achieve this. A child needs to be actively monitored and ensure that correct fingers are on the home keys.
Send your child to a trained professional who has taught children how to touch type. This is really the ideal way to learn how to touch type. Your child is an environment with similar children of the age profile learning how to touch type.
Learning how to touch type does require patience, motivation and concentration but it can be learnt by anyone. We recommend the ideal start age is for a child to be the primary age group from eight onwards. If a child picks learns how to touch type before they enter secondary school then they have managed to master a major skill that will benefit them in the long run.
As Searsol, we offer the possibility to learn how to touch type online with our online typing tutor (www.typewiz.com). More details are available on www.typewiz.com. We also offer dedicated typing centres in Ireland. To check out the location, click on https://searsol.com/find-centers/. We also run intense computer camps that teach touch typing over Easter and Summer, to check out our camps, click on the following link http://searsolcomputercamps.com
Do you know why QWERTY keyboard has survived so long? We outline the history of keyboard layout to you.
Mechanical Typewriters: 1870’s
In 1872, Remington Company produced the first mechanical typewriter, patented by Latham Sholes. Typists soon mastered the skill to typing that they were going so fast that were jamming the typewriter keys which flew up to hit the typewriter ribbon. In the late 1870’s, instead of solving the problem of why the typewriter was jamming, Remington redesigns the keyboard layout so as to slow down the typist by introducing the QWERTY keyboard. The “improved” QWERTY layout was designed to slow down typing and prevent typewriter keys from jamming anymore by slowing down the typist.
Electric Typewriters: 1930’s – Dvorak
Electric typewriters solve the problem of the keys jamming and new keyboards layouts were introduced. In 1936, August Dvorak patented a new layout to reduce finger reach and strain by putting common letters on the home row and to avoid awkward use of key pairs to improve speed. Here’s the Dvorak keyboard:
Design criteria sound good, so what’s wrong with this keyboard? Almost all letters move from their familiar QWERTY locations. The change was too big and relearning of this new keyboard layout would have taken people a month to get familiar with the Dvorak keyboard. Hence the uptake on this new design was poor with typist preferring to stick with QWERTY keyboard for typing.
Personal Computers: 1970’s
With the introduction of the personal computer in 1970’s, there was another opportunity to change from the standard QWERTY keyboard layout. But the QWERTY keyboard remained as Computers manufactures wanted the typist to engage with the computers. To make the change over to computers less of a hassle and to reduce the learning curve, the keyboard design was not changed.
Colemak
In 2006, a programmer named Shai Coleman released an alternative keyboard layout called Colemak. Just as Dvorak was a response to QWERTY’s shortcomings, Colemak addresses the failures of Dvorak but does so in a way that doesn’t alienate current QWERTY users. The intended result is a layout that aims for speed, efficiency, minimal repetitive stress injuries, and an easy learning curve for QWERTY typists.
The beauty of Colemak is that there are only 17 differences in key placement between it and QWERTY, yet those 17 differences are more than enough to create a radically improved typing environment. All other keys remain the same. As such, QWERTY users should not be afraid to learn Colemak.
Colemak eliminates virtually all cases of frequent letters in “stretched finger” locations. For example, Dvorak places ‘L’ in the QWERTY ‘P’ spot, which requires frequent stretching of the pinky. The positions of other keys have also been optimized with Colemak, such as moving the high-frequency ‘R’ and ‘I’ keys to the home row.
So should you change from QWERTY to learn a new keyboard layout?
If you spend most of your day typing on a computer, it’s worth looking into. The speed gains and injury reductions are real and they do add up over time. However, there are some things that you’ll want to keep in mind.
You’ll experience a big drop in typing speed while learning a new layout. A typical person trying to learning would need to set aside a whole month to learn a new keyboard layout. However, with the help of typing tutors such as our own Typewiz which helps you learn how to touch type in a fun and interactive way. For more details about Typewiz check out our website www.typewiz.com
Keyboard shortcuts can be an inconvenience. Due to Dvorak’s drastically different layout, shortcuts like CTRL+C (COPY), CTRL+ V (Paste) and CTRL + X (Cut) can be a pain. Colemak is less of a pain due to its similarities to QWERTY, but the differences still exist and you may find yourself frustrated from time to time when you accidentally hit the wrong shortcut keys.
Lastly, other computers will still be QWERTY. This isn’t a big deal but if you are using multiple devices it can be problematic if you switch computers a lot, or if other people use your computer it can cause problems and time delays in typing.
For me, the QWERTY keyboard is here to stay and it has been part of keyboard history and will not be changed. So it importing to learn typing on a QWERTY keyboard using a typing tutor is important. Why not book a free first session trial at our course centres where your child can learn how to touch type assisted by our trained professional tutors..
Will you stick with QWERTY or switch to an alternative? Or maybe you have already switched? Tell us what you think in the comments below!
