Choosing the Right Keyboarding Program

Whether you have a keyboarding program in place that you love or are in the process of deciding which program you will select for the 2019-2020 school year, here are five questions to ask yourself when selecting the proper keyboarding program:
 

1. Are your students having FUN? Your students are digital natives and are accustomed to playing games online. Incorporating game-based, child-friendly activities in your keyboarding lessons is a fun way to engage students with their keyboarding activities.
    
2. Is it easy to teach? Teachers have an action-packed day. Teaching keyboarding should be easy to teach in 10 minutes a day or 30 minutes per week. Also monitoring your students' progress should be included in your keyboarding program for an easy way to keep your students on track.
    
3. Can the program meet your students where they are? Your keyboarding program should be equipped with pre-keyboarding lessons for all students and build on those lessons for each grade level—and come with the ability to skip ahead for your more advanced students.
    
4. Will the keyboarding program help build safe digital citizens? Digital natives and digital citizenship are not mutually inclusive. The internet and the online world can be a scary place. Students need tools to navigate the digital world. Look for keyboarding programs that provide student appropriate lessons in being safe digital citizens.
    
5. Is there a support team in place for technical issues? Let’s face it, with digital products there may be a time you will need assistance. A tech-savvy, responsive customer service team is critical to overall program success.
    

While you are evaluating, check out Keyboarding Without Tears and access our free keyboarding demo to see how it prepares students for all digital communication skills.
 

Will you be attending the Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) January 27-30, 2019 in Orlando, FL? If you plan on attending, stop by booth 1107 and check out our award-winning program Keyboarding Without Tears.

By Lori Anderson Lori received her BA in English from Greensboro College in North Carolina. Lori was most recently working as a Senior Marketing Coordinator at FOX Architects where she gained experience working with social media & PR, corporate campaign strategies, event management and marketing communications. She also has experience working with marketing writing & editing, market research, and tradeshow management.