using TypingPal for four years. TypingPal has a good administrative
interface. I can easily upload a list of new students, promote students
between class groups, even download a CSV file of students' results. The
price is also competitive. Being web-based means I didn't have to buy a
network version in order to centrally monitor students' progress. It also
means that students can access their records from any computer. It is nice
to be able to tell parents that they DON'T have to go out and spend their
own money on a keyboarding program. They really liked that!
TypingPal re-designed the student view last year, which was a big
improvement. My only complaint is that they removed the ability for
administrators to build customized practice texts. It was useful put in
this week's spelling words or create a longer text for the more advanced
students to practice. TypingPal offers traditional key-specific practices
and high-frequency-word text practices.
I will admit that not many of my students use it at home, but the fact that
it is available holds water with the parents. We incorporate keyboarding
learning into our lab time, so that they have **supervised** practice, and
it does make up part of their grade. Most kids do understand that this is
an important skill to master. Because it is web-based, I can make the case
for them to do extra practice when needed, even over the summer.
Dan Berger
JPDS-NC
Washington, DC
-----Original Message-----
Hi Susan (and others) ... I have been using Typing Pal for two years at
Storefront and several years before that at Chapin ... I love it in terms
of its ease of use, easy ability to import names and flexibility of levels
.. I use it for every grade from 1-8 at Storefront now and would be glad
to create an account for you so that you can try it out ... Steve
p.s. we have launched a billion penny project here in Harlem and now have
a YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/billionpennyproject in case
you know of any organization that wants to partner or in any case your
school wants to help support us ... we are giving away 1/10th of the
billion pennies to 10 non-profit organizations in need as part of our
YouTube contest
Steve Bergen (sbergen@cstorefront.org)
CIO and Computer Teacher, The Children's Storefront
70 East 129th Street, New York, NY 10035
An Independent School in Harlem
Web site: http://www.thechildrensstorefront.org
Tech Saturday Info at http://www.techsaturdays.org
One Billion Penny Project at http://www.billionpennyproject.org
CBS video at http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5021154n
also co-director, The "Summercore" Teaching Company
until the Pats go 19-0 ... http://www.summercore.com
Summercore 2009 includes June 15-19 at Castilleja
June 22-26 at NCCS and July 6-10 at Berkeley Carroll
July 13-17 at Horace Mann, NY
July 27-31 at Shorecrest in St. Petersburg, FL
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