The Keyboard Typing Poll

[CrashG]

Took 2 semesters of typing way, way back in high school on the old IBM Selectric (the red and blue ones). Actually did quite well and it's come in quite handy after all.

[oldtimefighter]

3 hours ago, warwagon said:

That's my thinking too, but that doesn't really set them up for life at a job out side of school which requires a computer and typing. Schools are probably getting so dumb that they think thumbing on a touch screen is the same thing as typing on an actual computer keyboard.

I have no need for touch screens on any desktop machine and love mechanical keyboards. I don't swipe on my phone keyboard and miss the old slide out physical keyboards. Yes, I know how to type and took a typing class in high school. Saying all that... Why do you think typing needs to be taught in school these days? How many jobs are out there that actually require typing skills? Most of the jobs I have had (including now) were sitting in front of a computer but I never really needed to know how to "type" or was required. Hunt and peek works pretty good for those that need to do that. Typing was important before the computer because it was critical for productively to get it right the FIRST TIME. Today we have word processors with templates, spell check, and the ability to go back and edit our work.

Edited August 8, 2017 by oldtimefighter

[Brys]

I had a tiny bit of typing exercises at school when I was a kid, and then I found a few of those typing softwares to keep training at home for a while. I was never perfect at typing but with all the practice I got working I can now type text without looking. That is, on a qwertz keyboard, I still have to check where the z and y are on a regular qwerty. And I rapidly lose the will to live on an azerty. Some symbols, I know them on the qwertz layout, some I don't, if I change layout I'm lost completely (I recently printed the regular US qwerty layout and the french azerty on a piece of paper I keep next to my desk just in case)

 

I don't use all of my fingers. Well, I do but not right. Not counting the thumbs that I use only for space and alt, I use about 4 to 6 fingers most of the time, and the other two only in rare instances. Sometimes if I'm on a new keyboard or if I move my seat too much I will type about half a sentence with garbled letters because one of my hands is about one key to far left or right, but then I look for the notches over f and j to find my orientation back.

 

And then I look at my parents, I tried to give them exercises but I guess they don't write as much as I do. Sometimes they spend 5 to 10 seconds looking for a letter on the keyboard with their eyes. I also have a friend who works in computer science and types with only two fingers. He's not that slow, but he's relatively slower, and sometimes he cuts on spelling to avoid having to look for accented letters and things like that. So yeah, I think learning to type today is still useful, it makes you lose less time.

 

That said, just like @oldtimefighter says above, with all the tactile keyboards these days, that appear right on your screen, have different input methods (word flow & friends), try to predict words, help you to spellcheck and all that, it's probably becoming less and less important to know how to type well.