HIT-> Macintosh Keyboarding Software

[MLSKaren@AOL.COM]

Below is a summary of responses received to my recent survey about Macintosh
keyboarding software for elementary schools. The questions that I posed were:
> Which program are you using for keyboarding? Are you
> satisfied with it?

There appears to be no clear consensus about the best program. Of the 7
responses received, 2 were for Type to Learn, 2 for PAWS, 1 for Mario Teaches
Typing, 1 for Type! and 1 for All the Right Type. Several people mentioned
the importance of having a program prevent students from moving to new keys
until the first keys are mastered.

I recently served on a district committee to preview and select keyboarding
software for Iowa City elementary computer labs, which will be converted from
Apple II to Macintosh next school year. We have been using PAWS for the Apple
II in grades 4-6. Some of the criteria we used in evaluating the various
Macintosh programs were:
1)  Ease of use
2)  Teaching of home row keys first
3)  Main lesson menu
4)  Ease of teacher management
5)  Inclusion of sentences and paragraphs in drills, to make a natural
transition to word processing
6)  Non-judgmental correction of student errors

With any program, close teacher monitoring of student performance is
critical, as are frequent practice sessions. No software can replace the
teacher.

Mavis Beacon requires saving student information to the hard drive, which is
impractical with At Ease installed; also, the on-screen keyboard display was
difficult to read and there was no main lesson menu. Sunburst's Type to Learn
does not use sentences for drills and poorly integrates with word processing
goals. Many of our reviewers were annoyed by any drills which move the text
horizontally or vertically on the screen as one types.

Our committee concluded that PAWS was the closest match to our criteria. It
is a no-frills, no-glitz program, but it does have a lesson menu and uses
complete sentences and paragraphs in drills. It teaches the home row first
and is easily adapted to paper recordkeeping of student progress. It provides
gentle correction of errors by not letting students continue until a correct
letter is typed (but no beeping or annoying messages.) The game portion is
too juvenile for grades 4-6, but that is not a major focus for us, anyway.
PAWS is published by Southwestern Publishing in Cincinnati, Ohio, and site
licenses are available.

Thanks to all who responded to the questions! Hope this is helpful for others
struggling with a similiar decision!

Karen Parker
mlskaren@aol.com
Media Specialist
Longfellow Elementary
1130 Seymour Ave.
Iowa City, IA 52240