October 21, 2013
Common Core Breathes Life into Keyboarding
As you read the 100+ pages of Common Core’s ELA and Math standards, you realized that technology is woven throughout as one of the tools students use to prepare for college and career. It is mentioned at least a dozen times (I’ve truncated the bullet list for convenience, but the gist is the same)–
- Expect students to demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding to type a minimum of one page [two by fifth grade, three by sixth] in a single sitting
- Expect students to evaluate different media (e.g., print or digital …)
- Expect students to gather relevant information from print and digital sources
- Expect students to integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats
- Expect students to interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., … interactive elements on Web pages)
- Expect students to make strategic use of digital media
- Expect students to use glossaries or dictionaries, both print and digital …
- Expect students to use information from illustrations and words in print or digital text
- Expect students to use a variety of media in communicating ideas
- Expect students to use technology and digital media strategically and capably
- Expect students to use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information
Use of technology differentiates for student learning styles by providing an alternative method of achieving conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and applying this knowledge to authentic circumstances.
New technologies have broadened and expanded the role that speaking and listening play in acquiring and sharing knowledge and have tightened their link to other forms of communication. Digital texts confront students with the potential for continually updated content and dynamically changing combinations of words, graphics, images, hyperlinks, and embedded video and audio.
The first bullet point–Expect students to demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding to type a minimum of one page [two by fifth grade, three by sixth] in a single sitting–has garnered a lot of attention from not just tech specialists, but all educators because it quantifies keyboarding skill, something not done in the ISTE national standards or many of the disparate state standards.
Last week, Washington Post writer Lindsey Layton wrote a front page article (of the Sunday Education section) on this topic and asked several teachers about their experiences with keyboarding in the classroom. I was thrilled to be included in that list and wanted to share the article with you. I know you’ll enjoy it:
Elementary students learn keyboard typing ahead of new Common Core tests
By Lyndsey Layton, Published: October 13
Of the major shifts taking place in American classrooms as a result of the new national Common Core academic standards, one little-noticed but sweeping change is the fact that children as early as kindergarten are learning to use a keyboard.
A skill that has been taught for generations in middle or high school — first on manual typewriters, then electric word processors and finally on computer keyboards — is now becoming a staple of elementary schools. Educators around the country are rushing to teach typing to children who have barely mastered printing by hand.
What are your classroom-and-keyboarding experiences?
More keyboarding articles:
Dear Otto: What are Common Core keyboarding standards?
Dear Otto: How do I teach keyboarding in a 25-minute class?
Handwriting vs. Keyboarding–from a Student’s Perspective
Book Review: K-8 Keyboard Curriculum
Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. She is webmaster for six blogs, CSG Master Teacher, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, a columnist for Examiner.com, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to TeachHUB. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
