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With the omni-presence of computers, touch typing is a life skill in this day & age. In
many other countries, touch typing is taught at primary school age. At Englishtype, we
are passionate about teaching typing and believe all children should learn to type before
they leave school. Be a forward-thinking school and add it to your curriculum, or at home
give your child a head start by getting them learning. Touch typing can boost literacy,
and reduce digital exclusion - 2 important areas.
Using a computer keyboard efficiently has so many benefits:
In education...
coursework is an increasing part of assessment and often must be presented in typed format...
25-40% of GCSE and A levels is coursework, and an average degree may require over 200,000 words in coursework alone!
exams are likely to be computerised in the not too distant future, and any child or student who is slow on the keyboard will be distinctly disadvantaged.
"... If you're going to university, spend the summer learning touch type.
Your fingers are going to do as much work as your neurons over the next three years."
Professor, University College, London.
In professional life...
most jobs involve using computers now, typing is no longer the preserve of secretaries and PA's.
doctors, solicitors, barristers, Managing Directors, Headmasters, even opticians, car mechanics, couriers and builders use computers all the time when working.
In personal life...
emailing and MSN are some of the most common ways to communicate these days.
and even if written on real paper, letters are often typed not hand written.
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It is a strange contradiction that as the focus on computers and ICT in schools has increased,
the teaching of typing is often viewed as a waste of time or too difficult, unlike in other European
countries and America. The old-fashioned prejudice that typing is a skill for secretaries only is
still all too prevalent in schools in the UK today. Others believe that "hunting & pecking" doesn't
slow children down significantly; that may be true when producing 50-100 words, but over
100,000 it will reduce speed considerably!
Other concerns are that typing will be given focus at the expense of other important areas,
particularly hand-writing. Clearly, there will always be a need for children to be able to write, and
it is not realistic that typing may replace writing. However, in today's world, typing is clearly a
complementary and very necessary skill. The QCA's Playback 21, a look into the future of
required English skills (with parents & teachers), highlights that "many express the view that
children should learn proper keyboard skills at an early age, just as they learn handwriting." In
producing written work, for example, could you write a report lineally without making a mistake?
Word processing documents frees thought from the unnecessary constraints that are a
fundamental part of the paper & pen process.
Sadly, the Government and the QCA are still behind the times in their attitude to touch typing
and have no plans to add it to the curriculum; the ICT curriculum requires that children produce
specified amounts of work on computer, but gives no guidance as to how it should be done or
indeed how long it takes! This is leaving UK children at a disadvantage. Attitudes are becoming
more favourable; back in just 2004, touch typing was viewed so informally as a skill it was
compared equally with texting by the QCA, and David Milliband (then Minister for Education)
ignored an interview question on why it is not a curriculum subject. Touch typing is now
proposed as a "desirable" extra by the QCA, but not an essential in the timetable. In many other
countries, touch typing is on the curriculum.
The QWERTY keyboard is going to remain the human / computer interface for a long
time to come - invented in 1873 for typewriters, today it is still the most common and
most efficient way to interact with a PC.
Touch typing can increase your efficiency by up to 10 times; some experts believe you
can save yourself an hour a day at work!
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