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basic keyboard skills for ESL students
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basic keyboard skills for ESL students
1:36 PM EST 1/21/05
I volunteer with the basic computers skills classes in the World Languages department at my library. We are in the process of revamping our curriculum to more specifically target our select audience. Not only are our students struggling with language, they also lack familiarity with many of our cultural icons --like the typewriter. They never had the opportunity to take Typing 101 in high school. When I make comparisons between the typewriter and the computer keyboard, I get a lot of blank stares.

So, I am looking for an online tutorial that has some very basic exercises for learning the keyboard. All of the online typing tutorials I've looked at are too advanced. We're not even close to touch typing when the students are translating letter by letter. I just want something that introduces the spacebar, the "carriage return"/Enter key, the shift key -- really basic stuff.

I may have to create one of my own, but I thought I would throw it out here first before I duplicate someone else's efforts. Any ideas?

Betha
Re: basic keyboard skills for ESL students
5:41 PM EST 1/21/05 as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
Betha, nice question! I'll be interested to see what comes in on this one. You might want to alert folks in the Spanish Language outreach forums that this topic is here. They are a little more focused - on Spanish-speakers - but may have some ideas as well.
Re: basic keyboard skills for ESL students
6:40 PM EST 1/21/05 as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
Betha:

You might want to check out www.learn2type.com I suggest it to students in my basic computer class. It is interactive and pretty easy.

Bobbie
Re: basic keyboard skills for ESL students
11:31 AM EST 1/24/05 as a reply to Bobbie Chapman.
Thank you, Chrystie and Bobbie, for the suggestions. I have looked at these options, but still find them to be more advanced than what I need.

In the past, our lessons have started with basic mouse practice and then proceeded right to word processing. We would open up Word and ask the students to type their name just to get some text on the screen, which we would then be able to manipulate. When we watched people struggling for 10 minutes to do that much, not knowing how to put a space between words, not knowing what we meant by capital/lower case letters, etc., we realized we needed an intermediate lesson that concentrated on the features of the keyboard.

I envision something that introduces the keyboard one letter or function key at a time --something along the lines of this site I found for learning the [url http://www.zigzagworld.com/HKTutor/hten.htm ]Hebrew keyboard[/url].

I'm still looking for an online interactive resource. In the meantime, I am creating a handout of exercises. I'll share it here when it's finished.
Re: basic keyboard skills for ESL students
12:07 PM EST 1/25/05 as a reply to Chrystie Hill.
I too have been looking for resources to teach ESL students basic computer. I did find the sites useful, that Erin mentioned. The information can be tweaked and adapted to meet the very basic needs. I plan on making up my own lesson plans geared to the students in my class.
I have to thank the ladies from the Spanish Outreach for their input. Without them, I would not have located what I need. I think it was Erin, Rose, and Martha. If I forgot someone, please accept my apology.
I hope you find what you need to implement the classes in your area.
Re: basic keyboard skills for ESL students
1:38 PM EST 1/25/05 as a reply to Tammy Dobonye-Lagoski.
I would be very interested in seeing what you come up with. Let's compare our customized lessons when we're done tweaking. emoticon

I am a firm believer in coupling text with clear illustrations. I plan to follow the model of the lessons from [url http://www.jamani.nl/site/Record.html?id=80 ]Jamani's Guide to Computers[/url].

The Spanish Outreach folks are contributing some great resources. About half of our ESL students are Spanish-speaking, so I am following the discussions with great interest.
Re: basic keyboard skills for ESL students
4:04 PM EST 1/25/05 as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
That site looks interesting. Haven't had time to navigate it at this time. I hope to do that in the am.
Thanks for responding.
Tammy
Re: basic keyboard skills for ESL students
5:16 PM EDT 4/8/05 as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
I finally did put together a lesson for basic computer keyboard skills instruction. It's even been taught to a couple of classes by now, but I consider it to still be in 'beta.'

I hope the attachment comes through intact -- there are lots of tables and graphics.

You can see that it is really basic, but it helps our students to limber up on the keyboard and just get some text onto the screen that they can then learn how to manipulate. This class is followed by an intro to word processing class, where they make greater use of their new keyboarding skills.

Feel free to use the lessons and send me feedback on what worked/didn't work, what you would add or improve.

....Betha
Attachments: Intro_ComputerKeyboard_beta.doc (277.5k)