![]() ![]() What should you do if your student appears to “hunt and peck” or takes a long time to type homework? First, do not make them feel self-conscious about it. (I wonder if perhaps he never learned touch-typing because the schools he has attended work mostly on tablets, which usually lack proper keyboards unless one attaches an external keyboard.) I couldn’t find statistics on how many students can touch type, but – considering most young people interact with their smartphones and tablets more than with a laptop or desktop computer – I fear the problem may be widespread. I had expected my student to finish his assignment in about 20 minutes, but because he had to “hunt and peck” it ended up taking him over an hour! This student is talented, taking honors classes and learning Latin, but his inefficient typing style slowed him down. ![]() Not having to “hunt” for keys also frees students’ minds to think more about the actual words and sentences they type. Additionally, touch typing allows students to watch their words appear on the screen, meaning they catch typos and grammar mistakes more quickly. With a little practice, most people can reach 80+ wpm. “Hunting and pecking” usually results in less than 27 wpm (words per minute) – often much less –, while an average touch-typist produces over 50 wpm. This skill increases typing speed dramatically, since one uses all ten fingers and the digits do not have to travel as far to hit the desired keys. Touch typing allows one to type using all ones’ fingers, without looking at the keyboard or even necessarily the screen. In fact, he seemed surprised to learn there was a better way to type: touch typing. To my dismay, he informed me that he always typed this way. I figured he typed this way because he was using a tablet, so I offered to loan him a laptop with a real, physical keyboard. This past week, I was helping a student finish a school assignment when I noticed he was “hunting and pecking” – i.e., he would type one letter at a time using only his index fingers, always looking at the iPad keyboard, searching for the letter he wanted.
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