What to Look for in a Typing Program? When looking for a program, website, or app to teach elementary students to type there are a few things to consider. For best results, you will want students to use a complete typing curriculum with video lessons and natural progression from home row, to vertical neighbors, and beyond. In addition, I look for sites that also include:
- a variety of games to practice and keep kids engaged
- adaptive tech that learns a student’s typing needs for targeted practice
- secure student log-in that saves and shares progress
- student-friendly learning content that ties into other content areas
- instant feedback for typos
- gamified
- ability to challenge classmates in typing games
While many programs claim to have all of the above, I find that you will need to add in games from other sites to keep things interesting. Also, you may want to reference your district’s technology standards (or check out this list of free K12 tech standards here) to see what is expected for each grade level. July 7, 2022
Erin Flanagan