How did you learn how to type?

TequilaMockingBird · 30-07-2008 06:33PM #1

Are kids still taught this in school? Or do you just do the two finger job these days?

I'm curious, as I rarely see anyone type "correctly" anymore. When I was at school your typing speed (wpm) was very important, is it still?

RedXIV · 30-07-2008 06:37PM

I was typing before i was writing. My dad was a massive nerd and he used to go through the alphabet with me on the keyboard.

They tried teaching us typing in school but wasn't a huge success.

Picked up speed from trying to chat up 10 people at once while in chat rooms as a frustrated teenager

30-07-2008 06:40PM

Internet addiction.

Dudess · 30-07-2008 06:40PM

20-hour typing course in an office training centre. Two five-hour sessions there to learn the basics, the remaining 10 hours spread out as long as I wanted. Test at the end.
It got me to over 80 words per minute - you only need the basics, the rest is up to you. If you've access to a keyboard you can put in the practice and train yourself for free once you've paid enough to learn the basics. No need for expensive secretarial courses

barnacle · 30-07-2008 06:41PM

Pitman typing exams... 145 wpm. 1st class.

brianthebard · 30-07-2008 06:41PM

Mavis beacon ftw!I taught myself with this before going to uni.I can type faster than a lot of the computer nerds could,so it works.

Dudess · 30-07-2008 06:42PM

145? Christ I feel inadequate!

Kimbot · 30-07-2008 06:43PM

Thought myself and it worked out well. Because I have spent most my life around computers I have sped up alot.

Blush_01 · 30-07-2008 06:44PM

I've never been taught how to type and my WPM is pathetic. Any inexpensive tips on how to improve it?

TequilaMockingBird · 30-07-2008 06:45PM

145? Respect!

80 at a push here. I am touch typing though.

/brushes imaginary fluff from shoulder...

inflight · 30-07-2008 06:45PM

My dad went back to college when I was 11 and could only use a typewriter.. So I typed his essays and theses and got Mavis Beacon

Holsten · 30-07-2008 06:46PM

I use my computer alot... self taught I guess?

Fanny Cradock · 30-07-2008 06:46PM

It sounds archaic, but in my school they used to put a wooden box over the keyboard with holes for your hands. Any mistakes... that meant a paddlin.

The system had a fatal flaw though: you could still see the keys.

KnifeWRENCH · 30-07-2008 06:47PM

I just type using my two index fingers. I've no idea how many wpm I can type. I don't particularly care tbh!

geminilady · 30-07-2008 06:48PM

i learnt it for the junior cert comes in very handy at work and with uni!

david_the_great · 30-07-2008 06:53PM

sueme wrote: »

Are kids still taught this in school? Or do you just do the two finger job these days?

I'm curious, as I rarely see anyone type "correctly" anymore. When I was at school your typing speed (wpm) was very important, is it still?

we never learnt this in school

BubbleWrap85 · 30-07-2008 06:53PM

ECDL in TY. Teacher used to ask the WPM we'd get in the little tests and used to think I was lying because I was quite good. Can do about 80 wpm. Once got 96!

Plus as someone mentioned previously, the whole internet addiction thing helps with typing fluency!!!!

omb0wyn5ehpij9 · 30-07-2008 06:57PM

BubbleWrap85 wrote: »

ECDL in TY.

Ditto!

NotMe · 30-07-2008 06:58PM

I did a typing class in transition year where we used these old typewriters to learn on. We had to type out a few paragraphs with each new letter and if you made more than 3 mistakes you had to start over. We only had one class a week though and we didn't actually finish learning the whole alphabet or numbers but it gave me a good start.

When I got a computer at home it had Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing with it and I brushed up my skills with that followed by many years of internets.

The Walsho · 30-07-2008 07:00PM

Years of MSN has me typing fairly quickly now.

andrewie · 30-07-2008 07:04PM

Had computers once a week only in first year which was unhelpful!

Like others, years of chatting online is how I learned.

Wertz · 30-07-2008 07:28PM

We were too poor to have anything other than a typewriter in my house when I was growing up, and that didn't appeal to me at all. Never so much as looked at a computer in school (I did art instead), then had the bright idea of wanting to study Comp Sci in college (lasted about 2 months lol)...anyways when I eventually got enough money together to get a PC and the Net, I taught myself how to type...I still look at the keyboard for about 90% of the time I'm typing, although I can look up at the screen and touch type, but it usually goes horribly wrong...I have no idea what my WPM is...it's probably very variable...I find I can type much faster when I'm in a hurry to put my thoughts into black and white before I loose my train of thought, or when I'm typing anything long. I do use both hands and nearly all the fingers on each but my method would be far from conventional.
I'd like tot hink that kids are taught how to type in school now, but since it seems most of them can't even spell, I doubt it does them much good...

xOxSinéadxOx · 30-07-2008 07:31PM

i don't know how to type properly but i can type faster than most people. it's just from typing the whole time you get quick

Ruu_Old · 30-07-2008 07:33PM

Mavis Beacon! Nah not really, we used to have a type writer when I was younger and I used to bash about on the keys. We had typing classes in secondary school (1st year), I think the dosser class got to do it though and I wasn't in it.

Primary schools normally have some portion of time dedicated to computers and typing, even the smallest of schools (my Mam teaches in a tiny rural school).

tobiesheba · 30-07-2008 07:34PM

On a pre-computer 1200 that Santa Claus bought one year when I was 'bout 9!

Adam · 30-07-2008 07:36PM

wat r u al tlkin bout i cn do lik 300 wrds a min im obv way bttr den al of u!! :P

Tha Gopher · 30-07-2008 07:37PM

Your schools taught you how to type?

Ours never did. I just got used to it.

Thought keyboards were the weirdest contraption ever and that it was sh1te that it wasnt in alphabetic order.
Can you buy an ordered keyboard?

Pigwidgeon · 30-07-2008 07:38PM

did ecdl in TY but i don't think it really helped me.
years of msning and chatting and stuff i suppose has helped...
how do you find out your WPM?

monkeyfudge · 30-07-2008 07:41PM

My childhood computer was a Commodore Vic-20 without a tape deck.

If I wanted to play any games on it I had to copy pages and pages of code out of a magazine. It certainly got me familiar with the QWERTY keyboard layout at a young age. I studied journalism in college and there were classes in touch typing as part of the course so I picked up the rest there quickly enough.

Certainly had no training in school though.

Frisbee · 30-07-2008 07:42PM

A large man called Ernst with a whip who used to stand near our computer.....

MSN would be my main contributor id say..

Overheal · 30-07-2008 07:43PM

RedXIV wrote: »

I was typing before i was writing. My dad was a massive nerd and he used to go through the alphabet with me on the keyboard.

They tried teaching us typing in school but wasn't a huge success.

Picked up speed from trying to chat up 10 people at once while in chat rooms as a frustrated teenager

Thats true; I was navigating through DOS before I could legibly spell my own name.

frustrated teenagerism ftw, but I learned in school. down in florida every class i was in had 5 IBM machines whith childrens typing software in it - stuff like type this word to win the game etc. In my spare time I even did some really awful ascii art. that happened through 4th and 5th grade.

47 WPM nowadays, I still dont type they way they teach you to

How did you learn how to type?

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