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Our school uses AlphaSmart keyboards, not Dreamwriters, so I am unfamiliar with the other uses for Dreamwriters. However, we do teach keyboarding to all students beginning in the fourth grade with a complete review in the fifth grade. We decided to wait until fourth grade for formal instruction because younger children often have hands that are too small to manage the reaches for some of the keys. With younger children, I emphasize three things: good posture, using both hands on the keyboard, and home keys. Beyond that I tell students to use the finger nearest the key to type the letter. I also teach them to use the shift key and the space bar. Many younger children have typing programs on their computers at home and will teach themselves. If children use both hands, good posture and home keys, they will have few bad habits to unlearn. Marcia M. Martin Building Technology Specialist Strawberry Park Elementary School P.O. Box 774368 Steamboat Springs, CO 80477 Phone: 970-879-7550 Fax: 970-879-6217 e-mail: mmartin@sailors.steamboat.k12.co.us > X-From: Lee Mastrodonato <mastrod@ibm.net> > My regards to the members of this listserve. My name is Lee and I > have only recently joined this listserve but already I have a question > to pose to everyone. > This year my school purchased a number of Dreamwriters. The > principal has asked one of the teachers to work with the second and > third graders in order to familiarize them with keyboarding. The teacher > is struggling to come up with ways to teach these young children > keyboarding in a way appropriate for their ages. I suggested that they > begin to use the Dreamwriters for all their writing related projects. > Has anyone had experience with teaching keyboarding to such young > students? What has worked for you? > Another part of the question would be is anyone familiar enough with > Dreamwriters to know how they might be used beyond basic word > processing. It would be unfortunate if they were so limited. EDTECH has changed addresses. The new list address is EDTECH@H-NET.MSU.EDU. All subscription commands should be sent to LISTSERV@H-NET.MSU.EDU.
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