The purpose of this study was to examine the status and trends of instruction in both keyboarding and speech recognition among public schools in a Midwestern state. A survey was sent to 490 members of the state business education association who returned 213 (62.5%) usable responses. The subjects represented schools from kindergarten to college.…

The purpose of this study was to determine the value of business education at the secondary school level as perceived by three groups of people who have great impact on course offerings, student advisement, and teacher hiring decisions. Specifically, high school counselors, high school principals, and local board of education presidents in a…

Responses from 157 of 193 business teachers who teach keyboarding indicated that 78.7% were aware of cumulative trauma disorder and 22% had experienced it. Only 13% of classrooms were equipped with wrist rests. About 53% teach techniques to reduce incidence, but 20% did not know whether they taught preventive measures. (SK)

This review of 47 publications describes the development of standard and Dvorak keyboards, finding that, although most studies found Dvorak more efficient, many methodological weaknesses appear. Considers that current interest in Dvorak stems from concerns about productivity, workplace safety, and the need for keyboarding speed. (SK)

Finger-movement distances for alphabetic keys of standard and Dvorak keyboards were calculated for every digraph in the business vocabulary. Dvorak required 37% less distance and had more right-hand, home-row, same-row, and alternate hand reaches. (SK)