Digital Storytelling and TypingClub

The title of this blog post is a little misleading. I'm not teaching students to tell stories digitally. This time I'm the storyteller.

I jumped into teaching the middle school computer classes this year. After some experience with a technology certification, I guess my school thought it would be appropriate to throw me into the deep end. I don't disagree. In fact, I really appreciate the rewards of teaching students how to solve problems using technology, especially with Google's services and other Web 2.0 tools. I'm having a great time in what I call my Media Class.

Typing has been an interesting process, though. I walked in to the position in the fall with a dated typing program. My first semester classes worked through an originally costly Type To Learn (the original), and when they finished with that they began (and some finished) All The Right Type. I had no rubric. I watched for proper technique, as much as I knew how, and I survived. But I found some things I needed to work on. For second semester, I got my act together and researched a new program. TypingClub is a web based service that is free to use and includes 100 introduction to typing lessons called "Typing Basics", and I came up with a strong rubric for technique, speed, and accuracy.

Used with permission: TypingClub

I love the format of TypingClub. Students have a visually satisfying screen to look at when they type. After each lesson, students see up to 5 stars appear and a point total, similar to the Angry Birds game. They can track their progress in friendly competition with classmates. Better yet, Typing Club is completely customizeable for lesson expectations. You can change the words per minute, percent accuracy settings, and more. Best, of course, the students learn to type in a fun atmosphere.

Used with permission: TypingClub

Even with all these wonderful features, I had a problem. Not to stereotype too much, but I have a female eighth grade piano player in my Media class. Her fine motor/typing skills are out of this world. She breezed through the Typing Basics lessons in a flash. What to do?

With the free version of Typing Club, there are limits. And I never figured out how to download other lessons, which I think is coming to the program soon. So, I took it upon myself to create a progressive short story that students who finished the basics could explore lesson by lesson. This is the digital storytelling I mention in the title of this post. The piano player was ready to begin.

Used with permission: TypingClub

With Typing Club, you have the capability of creating typing lessons from scratch. You create a title for a lesson, choose a lesson accuracy percentage, a words per minute goal, and possibly a time limit. I do not have experience with creating logical keyboard strategy, but I decided that if students could finish the basics with success, they were ready to begin typing "for real". Hence the creation of the story titled "The Cylinder".

Once students finished the 100 basic lessons, going back and achieving all 5 stars where necessary, they were allowed to start working on "The Cylinder". I started creating the story one short paragraph at a time, ending with some sort of cliffhanger after each one to keep students interested. Little did I know that students would enjoy typing the story so much. Little did I know that I would enjoy writing the story so much.

I had to really work to stay ahead of that first student. I would create a series of lessons/paragraphs about Oscar, the hero in my story, while students typed at their computers. After a day or two, she would catch up with me, so I'd have to write more of my story. Finally, I gave a time limit for each lesson, which was one of my better ideas. My student would almost get done, and the time would stop, causing her to start over. For somebody who is typing close to 80 words per minute in the 8th grade, it's causing her to fly over the keyboard even faster.

And I must say, the story is compelling for the 8th graders. I now have 3 girls working through the story at different levels. One of them walks in to the computer lab every day and says with a huge smile, "Are we typing today, Mr. T.?" Compared to some of the antiquated typing experiences these students have been exposed to, this is music to my ears. And it's a good reminder to keep the material fresh.

And for the girls that made it to the typing story "The Cylinder", I plan to surprise them by adding into the drama a character named after them. I can't wait to see how they react when they discover that they made it into the story.

Used with permission: TypingClub