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Post by James McClelland on Jul 9, 2010 18:59:03 GMT -5
What do you think about typing? Should there be a greater emphasis on typing in schools and universities? Even if you are an excellent writer and want to make a career on it, you need to know how to type, and not "pecking" with your two index fingers or typing 10 WPM. Your chances of getting a job in journalism is limited if you can't type.
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Post by Ryan on Jul 9, 2010 19:31:13 GMT -5
I think there should be much greater emphasis on typing. Of all the people I know, I type the fastest, and really it's because they just type so god damned slow. Most of them are hunter-peckers, which is just sad. By the time you're in a university, and needing to write papers every couple weeks, you should be able to sit down and type nearly as fast as you can think of the ideas. I know personally, I type 10x faster than I write, so it certainly is helpful for getting down ideas quickly.
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Post by swan on Jul 9, 2010 19:59:47 GMT -5
I remember having the occasional typing class back in grade 5 and it was pretty helpful, especially at that young age.
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Nakor
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Post by Nakor on Jul 9, 2010 20:07:13 GMT -5
30-40wpm should really be a minimum standard these days. And honestly most people would benefit from being faster than that, 50-60 is not hard to achieve.
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Post by Trey on Jul 9, 2010 20:24:17 GMT -5
Typing should definitely be emphasized. As technology advances, people will be required to type more and more, and hand-written forms of communication/documentation/etc will become obsolete. Although, I do think that teaching kids to write on paper is just as important.
PS: I type at 53WPM using 6 fingers x] I don't use all ten like normal people.
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Post by James McClelland on Jul 9, 2010 20:30:20 GMT -5
Well, I'm glad you guys sorta agree with me. I type with 8 fingers, 80 WPM.
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Post by Ryan on Jul 9, 2010 21:14:52 GMT -5
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Post by icarus on Jul 9, 2010 22:27:34 GMT -5
Learning to type is very valuable, but I've never found anything my school has done effective in teaching it.
At least 4 different times starting in late elementary school and going through early high school, computer teachers have attempted to teach us to type, with almost no success. I think it's an important thing to learn, but the methods they use don't seem to be effective.
I basically taught myself to type by trying to type the lyrics to a number of songs as quickly as possible. It might be something we're better at teaching ourselves, rather than trying to have a standard method. I certainly don't type the 'standard way,' I'm left handed and I use my left hand for about 2/3 of the keyboard, it just works for me.
I did the test the above poster did, and got 88WPM with 1 mistake.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2010 22:35:29 GMT -5
I believe that, as society progresses, the act of writing using pencil and paper will soon become near-obsolete. With the advent of PDAs, IPods, laptops, and other portable devices, the old "Pocket notepad" is becoming unneeded. Not to mention that paper-shortages are often a problem.
Why not store and distribute data, memos, notes, and other things digitally instead of printing and copying pages and pages of this? This is especially important in school, where loads of paper is wasted on 5 page packets that we'll use for a week and throw away.
So, of course typing is important.
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Post by Joey on Jul 9, 2010 23:40:41 GMT -5
To graduate from my school you have to type 30 wpm. We start in third grade. Most kids can do at least 40 when they leave. I can do 60. I type using eight fingers, like we are taught. I think this is a really good system.
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Post by Benyamin on Jul 10, 2010 0:28:11 GMT -5
Well if you're looking at it from a technology standpoint, we could evolve out of typing altogether. How long before we go from the brain straight to the screen?
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Post by Enemynarwhal on Jul 10, 2010 0:45:57 GMT -5
No, typing is something you can easily learn on your own. I had multiple typing classes and none of them did a bit of good for me. No matter what it seems I'm only capable of typing with my two index fingers, and by the way asshole, I'm still kinda fast so suck it, and only specific jobs require the ability to type fast, which is something you can learn in the classes you take for that career.
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Matthew
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Post by Matthew on Jul 10, 2010 3:10:11 GMT -5
I can type at around 40-50 words per minute and it seems to get me by, but I am trying to learn to touch type.
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theeverbored
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Post by theeverbored on Jul 10, 2010 4:17:02 GMT -5
I've never had actually tested my typing speed. All I know is that I failed miserably in a 5th grade typing class. It wasn't until I started writing more for the sake of writing my own fiction that I really started learning to type fast. I don't know why some people push typing so much in school itself. There are so many things to learn already I think that once you learn the basics in middle school the practice of writing history or English papers [or what ever you language is] seems to be the best teacher. Especially since now and days with kids on forums at such a young age I think writing is becoming second nature.
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Post by James McClelland on Jul 10, 2010 4:28:17 GMT -5
I learned how to type completely unknowingly. I just started using the computer at a young age and I just kinda evolved since then.
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Post by Speckley on Jul 10, 2010 4:59:58 GMT -5
I think that it's just as important to learn typing as it is to learn good penmanship. I can't tell you how many times I've had trouble reading someone's handwriting on just a simple note. And while I do think that typing has become (and will continue to be) an important skill, we won't completely omit the need for good handwriting. I think, with the increased popularity* of the tablet computer, there will still be a few people who choose to write directly onto a computer screen rather than use an onscreen keyboard. I could be wrong. You never know.
On the topic of typing classes, I can remember being taught how to type (properly) as young as about 5 or 6. We would learn the basics, and then we would have covers over the keyboards to practice typing while we looked at the screen. Learning how to type while you learn how to write is probably the best way to do it. Not to mention, the typing program that we used was as much a computer game as it was a successful learning tool. I even had a similar program on one of the computers we had at home: I would spend a lot of time on that computer, everyday, playing those typing games. Man, I am such a nerd. XD
I really hope that this experience has little to do with me growing up in the Silicon Valley. Heh.
* Yes, I realize that the iPad is not the very first tablet computer. We've had dozens of them in the past, but they've never really caught on until now. Which is a shame. I want a tablet computer with a pressure-sensitive pen/screen, darn it.
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Post by James McClelland on Jul 10, 2010 5:19:52 GMT -5
I don't think someone's handwritting is related to teaching efforts. I excel my English classes even though my handwritting sucks.
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Post by RandiKthxxx on Jul 10, 2010 10:22:00 GMT -5
I think I knew how type before I took Keyboarding at my school. I didn't use the traditional technique which got me in trouble, but I was still the fastest kid in class. Most of the kids in class were the hunter-pecker types that either didn't have access to a computer at home or just didn't give a damn enough to learn to type before then. I think as we move more into the digital age, basic use of most electronics should be emphasized more. Paper is going to obsolete in a few years, all we're really gonna need to know how hand write are our signatures
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Shmian
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Post by Shmian on Jul 10, 2010 10:24:03 GMT -5
Yeah, we had typing classes all through elementary school, so most of the kids in our school can type fairly well. A lot of them still suck, though.
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Cortney
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Post by Cortney on Jul 10, 2010 12:12:45 GMT -5
The only reason I'm a decent typist is because my mother is almost as obsessed with the internet as I am, and when I was a kid I'd watch her rapidly type, and wish I could do the same. Now she refers to me as the machine gun. ;P
I think typing should definitely be taught in schools and emphasized as a necessary skill. People learn math because of how useful it can be in everyday life, and typing is the same way (and the necessity of being able to type will only increase as technology becomes more and more prevalent in every aspect of our lives). I know a technology class is required in most schools, but I know my class was extremely...90s. It taught how to type, but most people still chose the hunt and peck method.
SO YEAH. I do agree that the ability to type properly and efficiently should be emphasized in our lovely school systems. Yup.
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