Re: Is 1st grade too early for keyboarding?

Randy Kamiya (pbindustry@earthlink.net)
Mon, 12 Aug 1996 12:01:27 EDT

Jackie Musil wrote:
> The principle at our elementary school (which only has K-3 grades) has
> decided that next year, all but the kindergarten classes will do
> keyboarding for 20 minutes once a week, then a second class during the
> week will focus on word processing for 30 minutes.
>
> I must also point out that we have many fine educational computer programs
> that we used in the past but will not be using any more. This isn't as
> bad as it sounds as these programs are on the Apple IIe which someday will
> be replaced in our lab.
>
> I would love to have lots of ideas on this issue. Is 1st grade too young
> to emphasize only keyboarding and word processing?

I worked as a long-term sub in a K-3 Special Day Class (SDC)
serving LD and SED kids during the months of May and June.
They did not have a computer in the classroom, so I brought
my PowerBook 5300c and a spare keyboard.

I loaded Key-Whack, Thinkin' Things and Bailey's Bookhouse
onto the hard-drive. All of the kids were able to get some-
thing out of using the computer. Where some were able to
start identifying letters on the keyboard, others simply
played with the Key-Whack program. In any event, they were
all exposed to the computer in a non-threatening environ-
ment.

It's sort of like the "emergent literacy" theory of teaching
reading, but in this case I suppose you could call it "emer-
gent computer-literacy".

To answer your question, I think 1st grade is TOO LATE to
start keyboarding skills. Kids should be exposed to key-
boards and computers as early as possible. My 3 year-old
daughter can open, use and close her favorite programs on
my Powerbook with very little if any support.

Randy Kamiya
pbindustry@earthlink.net