Labor Day 2021 is just around the corner, and teachers around the country will soon be bombarded with the popular question, “Is there school on Labor Day?” Instead of just saying ‘no’ on autopilot, now is the perfect time to take advantage of this excellent learning opportunity in your classroom.
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As a teacher, you know just how important it is to prepare your students for standardized testing. SAT scores are a hot topic for high schoolers. Most colleges and universities around the country require SAT scores for admission, but they have other uses for them as well.
In today’s workplace, employers are searching for qualified candidates to fill their jobs. They are looking for individuals with good communication, problem-solving, and conflict resolution skills. Along with those soft skills, many employers are in search of potential employees with professional skills such as typing. Job seekers may find that they do not qualify for certain jobs because they are unable to meet the employer’s Words Per Minute (WPM) requirement. With practice and more focused work on typing, job seekers will have more success in their job search while learning a much needed skill in today’s society.
Continue reading “Typing as a Skill for Adults in the Workforce”
In a time disturbed by COVID-19, the exploration of digital learning tools has become an essential strategy for keeping students engaged while socially distanced. Although game-based learning (GBL) is not a new concept, the benefits of digital game-based learning are more apparent than ever.
Game-based learning and gamification have been shown to increase student engagement, foster social-emotional learning, and motivate students to take risks. So what exactly is game-based learning and gamification? How do games help students become active participants in their learning process? We will cover those questions and more in this article on digital game-based learning.
The internet is a vast abyss of content. These days it seems like you can learn almost anything online—from how to change a tire to how to suture like a surgeon. The growth of edtech tools has led to a whole new range of possibilities when it comes to learning. As students and teachers leverage technology to enhance learning, it is imperative that students understand the qualities of digital citizenship.
The shift to online learning during the pandemic was a challenge to say the least; however, we can’t deny the benefits of ed tech’s capacity to engage students like never before. As we embrace a more digital curriculum, we need to be prepared to teach digital citizenship.
Continue reading “Digital Citizenship in the Time of Remote Learning “
Ask any teacher what learning loss is, and they’re likely to tell you that it’s the forgetting of previously learned information that occurs every year while students are on summer break. After all, it’s why teachers always start the first few weeks of each new school year by having students review information and practice skills they learned the year before.
And while learning loss certainly isn’t a new phenomenon by any stretch of the imagination, it has garnered a lot of attention ever since the covid school closures brought the issue into focus. The learning loss in the 2021–2022 school year is going to be a challenge even more difficult than it ever has been before. Kids are far behind in academics and they are struggling to make sense out of everything that has happened since the pandemic.
Continue reading “Back to School in Edtech: How to Combat Learning Loss”
The average typing speed is 40 WPM, though this can change dramatically depending on how you type. Find out where your typing skills stand by taking one of our typing speed tests. Whenever you complete a test, you can access and share a certificate of completion to teachers or potential employers.
We all use a computer keyboard at some time or another in our lives – some of us more than others. Here are some fun facts to consider as you’re typing away!
Tips for keeping computer lab keyboards clean (and germ free)!
It’s that time of year again – flu season. And school computer and laptop keyboards are a haven for bacteria. One way to make sure that you and your students stay as healthy as possible, is to keep your school’s computer keyboards clean and germ free.
Obviously, you can’t just wipe it down with a wet cloth – keyboards are electrical devices and shouldn’t get wet. In addition, dirt and grime aren’t just on the surface – they’re also between the crevasses of your keyboards, making them even harder to clean.
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Written by Beth Budinich – Typing.com Teacher Champion
Proficient keyboarding skills are an example of a background skill that may have quite an impact on test scores as students are doing more and more online testing.
While it can be hard to quantify the effect it may have, there are studies that show there is an effect. Also, teachers that are administering tests speak to the benefits of their students being efficient at keyboarding. Students proficient at keyboarding also notice their ease of focusing on their writing instead of on the mechanics of keyboarding.
From the South African Journal of Education Vol. 26(2)281-293 2006, is a keyboarding study by Elsie Lubbe, Jan Monteith and Elsa Mentz called “The Relationship Between keyboarding skills and self-regulated learning”.
This study defines keyboarding skills as: “The ability of learners to key in information into the memory of the computer with the minimum effort and energy use.”
Continue reading “Do Keyboarding Skills Improve Student Test Scores?”