We’re excited to announce that you can now save your high scores when playing the typing games Keyboard Ninja, Type-a-Balloon and Type Toss! Only the most difficult mode (for example, all letters on hard mode) will save your score. So go check it out and try to set some records!
We are also in the process of updating all of our exclusive typing games to contain personal scoreboards, so stay tuned!
In the coming months, we will be releasing some fun, highly requested features. Here’s a little preview of the next two updates!
Teachers, you will soon be able to upload an avatar that will show up on your student’s dashboards. This can be a school logo, a staff photo, or anything else you feel represents your class.
Student accounts will be able to choose from a pre approved list of fun avatars (cars, flowers, trees, even the Fun to Type monster!) that will show up on the class scoreboard, and in the Teacher Portal reports.
With Apple’s recent release of iOS9, some of you have reported trouble with iPads using the default Safari browser (Chrome works great, however!). We have been working with Apple to solve this problem, and will be releasing a much improved flow for our mobile typists.
Are there any features you’d absolutely love to see added? Leave us a comment below and let us know!
Happy typing!
Ask anyone how fast they type and they’ll proudly tell you their words per minute (WPM), but ask even your speediest friends how WPM is calculated and you’ll likely get a lot of “um”, “hmm”, “uhh…” responses. Today, we’re going to fix that!
Words Per Minute is the number of characters — including spaces and punctuation — typed in one minute, divided by five. “I can” counts as one word, while “popularize” and “let’s type” both count as two.
The famous sentence “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs.” contains 46 characters. If it takes you one minute to type this sentence, we can calculate your WPM:
Characters Typed in One Minute / 5 = WPM
46 / 5 = 9.2 WPM
But what happens if your finger slips and you make a mistake?
While there is no standard for factoring in incorrectly typed letters, we’ve found the best solution is to separate Accuracy and Speed. In the above example, if you mistyped one letter you would have still typed 9.2 WPM, but with a 98% accuracy.
In past versions of Typing.com, we used a statistic called “Net Words Per Minute”, which was your WPM * Accuracy %. We have since removed this calculation, as it motivated typists to focus too heavily on their WPM while ignoring their accuracy, leading to more mistakes and inevitably lower overall WPM.
Slow down to go faster!
While the calculations above are pretty straightforward, they do not take into account the difficulty of the content being typed, the length of the test, or the familiarity the typist may have with the material.
It should be no surprise that typing “I am a student and I enjoy typing easy words!” is a whole lot easier than typing “Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis”, despite them both being 45 characters long. Our Timed Typing Tests contain content specifically written to closely mimic average word and sentence length, structure, and punctuation.
Much like running, the longer you type, the slower you will go; to a point. We have found the 3 and 5-minute tests to be the most accurate gauge of overall typing speed, as they are long enough to produce a repeatable average speed and accuracy, without being too long as to fatigue the wrists and fingers.
Type the same sentence over and over and you will get faster and faster. Your fingers love familiar content and are quick to commit repetition to muscle memory. While great for typing the most common English words, this may inflate your speed if typing the same content repeatedly. To combat this, our typing tests are generated from a huge database of suitable content.
Now that’s the million WPM question isn’t it? I hear our free typing tutor works pretty well, you should check it out!
Happy typing!
Just in time for the start of the school year, we’re excited to announce the launch of five new skins!
Skins are a fun way to change the look and feel of typing.com, and can be changed at any time by logging into your Student Account and clicking the Skins link in the top navigation bar. From there, click (or tap for our iPad friends), on the skin that looks most fun and watch your typing tutor burst with color!
Do you have a new skin idea that you’d love to see? Leave a comment below and let us know!
We hope that you enjoyed your summer. We’ve been busy here at Teaching.com gearing up for the 2015-16 school year, and we have some exciting new Typing.com improvements to share with you.
As proper touch typing skills become more important for Common Core testing, and to prepare students for the workplace of the future, we understand that teachers need effective products to help teach keyboarding skills. Which is why we’ve taken feedback from our millions of teachers and students around the world to create a better Typing.com. Below are some of the highlights. For a more complete list, visit Welcome To The New Typing.com!.
We built a course that better eases students into typing with all 10 fingers, while being even more enjoyable and interesting. The new beginner course is better geared towards our younger learners and helps them work on developing their small motor typing skills before jumping straight into more complex keyboarding skills.
We know that students are motivated and engaged by a sense of achievement, which is why we have added stars that students earn for accuracy and badges that are earned for lesson completion. Just like in their favorite games!
Students can aspire to earn all three stars by focusing on accuracy. If they didn’t quite get it right their first try, they can re-do the lesson until they are satisfied. Teachers can suggest a minimum goal amount of stars for students to achieve before moving on the to next lesson.
At the end of each Lesson, there is a recap to show how many accuracy stars the student earned and they earn a badge!
Students can click the “Badges” icon in the taskbar to see how many badges they have already earned, and how many more they can earn. Badges keep students engaged and motivated to keep typing so that they can collect them all!
Your account is all ready to go on the new Typing.com – simply log in as you always have and click the “Migrate Now”button. Since the new Typing.com features a brand new typing curriculum, student statistics and typing progress will not copy over. However, you and your students will always be able to access your existing account at Classic Typing.com.
Use Clever (free) to seamlessly sync your district’s SIS, and log in securely using your student and teacher district credentials. Or, if you use Google SSO, we’ve got you covered!
Premium student memberships can now be transferred from one student to another! When a student with a premium account completes the course, simply downgrade that account, and upgrade a new student. It’s just that easy!
We overhauled the reporting system by adding new reports, filters, and additional options to assist in grading.
Hop onto the new Typing.com and see for yourself all the improvements we’ve made for you and your students. And, as always Teachers, if you have any questions please reach out to us at [email protected]. We’re happy to help!
Here’s to a great 2015-16 school year!
HOORAY!!!!
Get ready for the new version of Typing.com, now available. Based on the feedback from tens of thousands of teachers and millions of students around the globe, we’ve built the most amazing typing software, and we know you’re going to love it.
And don’t worry, if you and your students aren’t ready to switch, you can still access the old Typing.com at any time at http://classic.typing.com
Your account is all ready to go on the new Typing.com. Simply log in as you always have, however since the new typing.com features a brand new typing curriculum, student statistics and typing progress will not copy over, however you (or your students) will always be able to access existing account at http://classic.typing.com.
Simple, clean, and easy to navigate. The new Typing.com is built for all grade levels and ages.
Students are constantly motivated by being awarded stars for accuracy, and badges for lesson completion, just like in their favorite games!
Based on your feedback, we set out to build a course that better eases students into typing with all 10 fingers, while being even more enjoyable and interesting.
Finally… Timed Tests! Students can choose from 1, 3, or 5 minute tests. Every test also includes a beautiful printable certificate.
One of our most requested features, students can now access and retype any of the previously typed screens without having to restart a lesson from the beginning.
The typing lessons are 100% supported by modern tablets and even phones. And even typing games will be supported by the end of the year!
We’ve rebuilt Typing.com from scratch, using the latest browser technologies, to provide the most stable, reliable, and fastest learning tool possible.
That’s right. Use Clever (free) to seamlessly sync your district’s SIS, and log in securely using your student and teacher district credentials. Or if you don’t need syncing, but you use Google SSO, we’ve got that for you too! And all this is completely free. Coming in July!
We overhauled the reporting system by adding new reports, filters, and additional options to assist in grading.
Premium student memberships can now be transferred from one student to another! When a student with a premium account completes the course, simply downgrade that account, and upgrade a new student. It’s just that easy!
Everything counts! The time spent typing statistic now captures the time spent on repeated exercises, practice lessons, and timed tests. Note that this stat still excludes typing games and problem key lessons.
The timestamps that appear on the reports and activity logs will be based to your local time zone automatically.
There are so many improvements, it’s hard to even remember them all! We suggest you get in there and start using the new Typing.com immediately!
We are excited to announce we’ve officially changed our name to Typing.com! As the worldwide leader in teaching typing, what better name could we have? And beyond this great name change, we have a whole new Typing.com in the works. We know you will all love it.
Be sure to update your current bookmarks and shortcuts. The name “typingweb.com” will still work, and simply take you to typing.com, but it’s recommended that you update the links.
If you are behind a school or corporate firewall which has white-listed the typingweb.com domain, it is imperative that you whitelist typing.com immediately! So teachers, be sure to contact your network administrators as soon as possible to ensure there is no interruption to your students’ learning.
It is an exciting time for the TypingWeb team. We recently acquired the domain name “typing.com”, and in the very near future will be changing our name. As the leading product in the world of teaching typing, we think it is only fitting that we brand ourselves accordingly.
Probably nothing, except an easier to remember name. The product will remain the same, and the name typingweb.com will always still work, and simply take you to typing.com.
However, if you are behind a school or corporate firewall which has white-listed the typingweb.com domain, it is imperative that you whitelist typing.com immediately! So teachers, be sure to contact your network administrators as soon as possible to ensure there is no interruption to your students’ learning.
Happy Typing, everyone!
The summer months are flying by. Hours of outdoor fun in the sun will quickly be replaced by hours in front of the computer. As you head back to the classroom, review these tips on creating a healthy, ergonomic workspace to keep you and your students comfortable and injury free. Take time to review your own desk as well as the student desks. Not all of these adjustments can apply to the “one size fits all” workstations found in most schools, but a few quick and easy changes can help ensure that students are comfortable as they type.
Chair: Adjust the height of your seat so that your feet are resting comfortably on the floor. Your knees should be bent at a ninety-degree angle and your thighs should be parallel to the floor. If the seat is not adjustable add a footrest or booster. The seat back should provide support for your lower back by matching the natural curve of your spine. If yours is directly vertical, consider adding a lumbar pillow.
Monitor: The top of your monitor should be at eye level (or slightly below). It should be 16 to 28 inches away from the tip of your nose. Make sure you maintain an upright head posture with your chin tucked in. Keep your eyes focused on the copy you are typing from. Avoid looking down at the keyboard.
Keyboard & Mouse: You want your mouse and keyboard to be as close together as possible, with the alphanumeric part of the keyboard centered on your desk. Your hands should be level with your elbows (or slightly lower) and your hands and forearms should form a straight line. Avoid bending your wrist sharply upwards or downwards to type.
Posture: Don’t slouch. Keep your shoulders and back relaxed with your elbows hanging close to your sides and your wrists straight. Change your posture regularly. Regardless of how healthy your posture is, sitting in any one position for an extended period is not healthy. Be mindful of your body when you type or you’ll never reap the benefits of your properly set up workspace.
Eyes: Close your eyes tightly and then open them widely and repeat several times. You’ll also want to take some time every 20 minutes or so for the 20-20-20 rule: Every 20 minutes, take 20 seconds to look away from your screen at something 20 feet away from you.
Hands: Spread your fingers as far apart as you can for ten seconds and then make a tight fist and hold it and repeat.
Neck: Slowly turn your head to the side and hold for ten seconds, then turn to the other side and hold. Slowly tilt your head to the side and hold it for ten seconds, then slowly tilt to the other side and hold. Repeat.
Shoulders: Slowly shrug shoulders in a circular forward motion, then reverse the motion in a backwards motion and repeat. Spread your arms apart and make slow circles forward and then backwards.
Demonstrating good computer habits and sharing these tips with parents, who can apply them at home, will prevent computer-related problems in the future. What changes have you made in your classroom? Share your own tips on ergonomics with us in the comments.
Whether it’s out on the field or in the classroom, competition amongst peers can motivate students to improve skills they might otherwise ignore. This theory was put to the test by a technology teacher, Nadjib Aktouf. Nadjib decided to create a friendly typing competition as an incentive to motivate his 8-10-year-old students to practice touch-typing at home.
Mr. Aktouf noticed that despite being quick typists on all sorts of gadgets, most students had minimal touch-typing skills and described their generation as being, “stuck between parents who never learned touch-typing and schools that do not have time for it”.
His solution? Create a typing competition that would encourage kids to practice their touch-typing skills at home. 45 minutes of practice per week was recommended, but not required. He did not want it to become homework, but rather, something that students would enjoy doing. He created TypingWeb accounts for all students and used his Teacher Portal account to track typing activity and progress.
By the second week there was a surge in participation. Students began encouraging their friends to join and soon the computer labs were full of students during recess. Once a week he used the reports from his Teacher Portal account to recognize top typists in multiple categories, motivating students to continue with their training. At the end of the competition he announced the winners and staged a type-off between the fastest typists from each class. The students proudly displayed their new touch-typing skills to friends and faculty and all participants were rewarded with a pizza party!
A recap of Mr. Aktouf’s experience, including a reflection on the implementation and results of his project, can be found on his blog EdTechnica!. We want to thank Mr. Aktouf for sharing his story. We hope that his idea will inspire other teachers to come up with creative ways to motivate kids to improve their touch-typing skills.
What methods have you used in the classroom?