Dance Mat Typing, TypeRacer - great online typing tutors!
Written on May 9, 2008 – 6:34 pm | by Ed Warkentin
I just found a great website that helps teach typing! It’s called TypeRacer. You are given a passage to type, and random people are competing with you at the same time.
I like the fact that it’s an actual passage (real English words and sentences), rather than made up collections of letters. While you need to have practice with certain sets of letters as you are learning how to type, this is a lot more engaging than nonsense letters!
If you make an error, you are “stalled” until you go back and fix it. This is also a lot more like real life. Usually, I know when I’ve mistyped something, and fixing it right away is what I usually should do, rather than just plow ahead and fix the mistake later.
For the past few years, we (my school site) have been using Mavis Beacon to teach typing to our 6th grade students. This has presented immense technical problems, many having to do with problems in our local network, which has meant major delays in when the program can start with our students. Plus, our use of the computers has been delayed far too late in the school year for my comfort.
As I’m thinking about next year, I think I’m going to suggest that we abandon Mavis (since the version we’ve purchased isn’t compatible with the newer operating systems anyway), and start out with Dance Mat Typing, (which has levels, guides you through the different sets of letters) and then follow up with TypeRacer. Still chewing on this one, though…
Tags: typing
