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Monday, September 1, 2008

Handwriting and Keyboarding

Chapter 7 in "It's Elementary!" was very interesting. There were two things in particular that stuck out to me. 
The first thing was the handwriting bias. Although I believe writing with paper and pencil is important word processing can show teachers another side of students who normally have that biased placed on their work. Hamilton states that, "In hand-written text, a paper with precisely formed letters and straight margins will tend to be viewed as better writing then a paper with barely legible scrawl and messy corrections. the tidier paper suggests more orderly thinking, whether true or not. Typed text removes this bias, " (90). I completely agree with this, because I was this student. I had horrible handwriting and I remember writing shorter pieces because it took me longer to make each letter perfect. So although handwriting is important it can put a lot of pressure on students. 
Secondly, I really understood what Hamilton was talking about when she said, "The commitment to keyboarding instruction varies greatly from teacher to teacher," (91). I didn't learn to type at a reasonable speed until high school because keyboarding was like this in my school. I wish there was the time in school to devote more time to keyboarding. I feel it is an important skill that kids miss out on. I was glad there was a list of website suggestions. 
Lastly, I have really enjoyed what we have learned in class so far. I never knew you could do those thing with Microsoft Word. I cannot wait to learn about the smart board because they are becoming more and more prevalent in the classroom.

1 comment:

Natalie said...

Since I could not figure out how to become a contributor or post my own blog I have decided to leave a comment that is rely my responce. I like the reading, and I thought the all of the examples of for using technology were helpful. I would not have thought of that many ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. I feel like I have learned a lot in just one week, but since I can't figure out how to blog yet, it seems I could still learn much more. I was excited to learn how to use the editing feature on Word and how to insert a hyperlink into the document.

I was surprised when the reading mentioned the early ages that students are being taught to type. I don't have any recollection of typing in the school setting until middle school. I did have a typing program at home also, but I did not actually learn how to type efficiently until I took keyboarding class my freshman year of high school. I think it is extremely important to teach students to type, even if they can not master the skill at such an early age. I agree with the book that the word processor can be used even if the skill of typing has not been perfected.

I think it is important to balance the use of technology and the use of paper and pencil writing. One reason I think this is because the students we will teach have grown up using instant messanger and texting, so they already have an idea of typing. They also are probably in the habit of using shorthand when they are typing, and I think writing in school will help break that habit. They can learn when to use formal and informal language. I was excited to hear that teachers are trying to incorporate so much technology into the "standard" school curriculum.