The article reviews word processing software and software to build keyboarding skills, as used with students needing to improve their mastery of the writing process. Criteria for selection of word processing programs are discussed and specific word processing programs are compared. Instructional suggestions are offered. (DB)

Presents the structure of a business communication course that utilizes computers. Describes challenges teachers must face in the areas of computer/software knowledge, keyboarding skills, lab facility, and teaching methods. Emphasizes the benefits of learning to compose and keyboard at the computer, particularly regarding job marketability. (JD)

Presents ideas to help teachers make one-computer classrooms work. Suggestions include making sure the teacher masters the computer, managing computer time, using keyboarding strategies (such as photocopied keyboards for practice), and using time-saving techniques (e.g., previewing programs, pooling resources, and treating computers with care).…

The students in an Arizona elementary school writing lab form learning groups that alternate between paper and pencil activities directed writing techniques, and word processing and keyboarding skills. After students have progressed through brainstorming, rough draft, revision, and editing processes, their work is published by the Polar Press.…

Literature on word processing (WP) and writing in elementary classrooms is reviewed. Five propositions are constructed to provide a schema for understanding what is known and needs to be learned about young writers and WP. WP's effects on students' composing processes, written products, attitudes, and keyboarding/systems skills are considered.…

Describes a project in which middle school teachers turned over keyboarding instruction to a computer assisted instruction (CAI) program which enabled them to focus their efforts during the CAI on teaching higher-level thinking skills. The thinking skills developed include student analysis of learning, goal setting, self-motivation, and peer…

This study compared three motoric conditions (writing, tracing, and computer keyboarding) on the spelling performance of 48 third- and fourth-grade students with and without learning disabilities. No significant effect was found for either group. Interviews revealed that students preferred the computer condition but believed the writing and…

This report, abstracted from a larger research study on children's emerging literacy, focuses on the use and influence of computers in the education of children seven years old and younger. Highlights include placement and introduction of computers in the classroom; benefits of working in groups; keyboarding; and research on program effectiveness.…

This study examined the effects of five variables--student grouping at the computer, keyboarding status, academic discipline, student gender, and gender of partner--on student social behavior, both verbal and affective, in microcomputer classrooms in a public business high school. The effect of these variables on teacher behavior was also…

This continuation of an earlier article that described computer-based speech recognition products focuses on future hardware and software predictions. Highlights include effects that speech input/output could have on teaching language arts in elementary and secondary schools; changes in thought processing factors; use by the physically…

Forty-one research studies completed between 1929 and 1983 investigated the effects of typewriting on the development of children's language arts skills. Information about each of the studies was entered in a Lotus 1-2-3 database containing 43 fields. Effect sizes were calculated for 21 studies. The collected evidence suggests a small positive…

In some aspects, high school business education is the answer to the computer advocate's prayer. Because business education on the secondary level deals in part with numbers, measurement, word processing, and transfer of data by electronic means, it invites computer-aided instruction (CAI) and computer-managed instruction (CMI). The first…

This report summarizes and synthesizes current research on the effects of using word processors on students' writing performance. The report examines cognitive models of the writing process, issues in the assessment of writing performance, and research on instruction in keyboarding. The work was carried out as part of a course requirement by…

Designed to help Wisconsin educators use computers effectively in the instructional environment, this guide emphasizes planning at the district and building levels for the integration of computer literacy competencies into various disciplines in the K-12 curriculum and the teaching of computer science as an elective at the secondary level. The…

This document consists primarily of a compilation of nine articles, on the use of microcomputers in language arts instruction, that have been extracted from 1983-1985 issues of the journal "The Computing Teacher". Also included are various software reviews from the same period. The articles include: "Keyboarding Skills: Elementary,…