I was really happy that we discussed keyboarding in class and did the activity with the pros and cons of teaching keyboarding stand alone or as part of TPACK. As I mentioned in class last week our district wants us to teach keyboarding stand-alone and I had a training to do so. However, I have seen other teachers teaching the stand alone version of keyboarding and the kids complain all of the time about how boring it is to do. No thanks!!!!!
Last year, I utilized using technology with my students in all of their writing and publishing. I feel as though integrating the technology as part of my instruction kept the kids motivated to write and their writing and computer skills improved. So needless to say I don't teach keyboarding stand alone. I feel as though the kids are at different levels of keyboarding skills and I allowing them to go at their own pace with typing and navigating through the various computer programs. I also, strategically place more advanced tech saavy kids next to students who may need assistance. This works out well as they can help those who I can't get to right away.
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I love that you are a rebel and not doing the stand-alone. Good for you! :-) And I also love that you are using technology so much in the writing process. Which resources do you use? Web 2.0 things or software that your school has? just wondering.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed our class last week too! In my blog last week I wrote that I felt that kids could use keyboarding earlier. However, I was thinking of basic exposure and incorporating the skill into other activities. I agree with you that stand-alone keyboarding sounds BORING! (Well, actually that is the way that learned and it WAS boring!) Your seating arrangement sounds like a good way to compensate for some students lack of experience with technology.
ReplyDeleteKeyboarding is such an 'easy' topic, but we never seem to do it very well in schools. Hopefully, I rose an awareness that there is work to be done in that area!
ReplyDeleteGood thinking on the way you place your students around the classroom. Sometimes students learn from other students things we have a hard time communicating, so good idea. I also love that we did the pros/cons list with keyboarding. It was never anything I'd thought about much before and had never even considered that I might have to teach it in my own classroom. I really appreciate how Dr. S has us think about both sides of things rather than just the side that she may or may not prefer. Gives us a chance to use our brains and come to our own (hopefully educated) decisions. :)
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