Compared the ease and efficiency of the Qwerty and Dvorak keyboards by analyzing five popular lists on high frequency words to determine differences in fingering for the keyboards. Found that more high frequency words and more characters are typed on the Dvorak keyboard home row, and therefore children should be taught to use the Dvorak rather…

Indiana fourth graders received keyboarding instruction 30 minutes per day for 4 weeks with 30 minutes of daily practice thereafter. Comparison with their scores in the fifth grade revealed an increase in speed of nine words per minute. Accuracy did not change significantly. (SK)

A national survey of 753 elementary teachers found that only 13 percent (95) teach keyboarding, there is insufficient time for mastery of touch typing, access to equipment is limited, teachers do not have thorough knowledge of theory related to psychomotor skill development, and no formal evaluation is used. (SK)

Discusses keyboarding strategies for elementary school students with learning disabilities using microcomputers. Describes a study that evaluated the efficacy of instruction in systematic scanning against a baseline of no instruction and students' current hunt-and-peck strategy. Repeated measures of typing rates showed no advantages of the…

A study concluded that there were no significant differences in posttest speed achievement of students in grades 3 through 6 when pretest typewriting speed score was used as a covariate. Fifteen or fewer hours of instruction allows development of typewriting speed at the lowest level of skill acquisition. (JOW)

A third grade class served as subjects of this study on the use of paired keyboards attached to a single microcomputer as a means to facilitate Internet exploration. A collaborative environment resulted, where students could benefit from the scaffolding provided by computer and Internet resources. (AEF)