Keyboarding is an essential skill for students to learn in our modern age. Technology is at the very heart of most of our daily activities, our jobs, and even our connections with others. Unfortunately, many students tend to resist this class because memorizing the keyboard layout and practicing standard typing exercises simply can’t sustain their interest for extended periods of time.

Most teachers are now allowing the computer to teach children all on its own. Educators have access to an ever-increasing number of resources to aid in classroom instruction. These same resources are readily available to help students tackle key topics like keyboarding as well. In fact, many of them use of gamification to transform the rote activity of memorizing typing patterns into something more interesting.

It is shocking to realize that many students do not even know how to type, despite growing up with technology playing a major role in the culture. Schools assumed that students could teach themselves keyboarding, but that isn’t always the case. While our students can certainly manage to get their ideas out somehow, they often use eccentric methods that are inefficient for school and the workplace.

How can you teach students to type using gamification?

Most experts recommend teaching students the traditional way with the standard keyboarding exercises, to begin with. This allows students to learn the proper placement of their fingers on the keys and how to correctly utilize the touch-typing patterns. Many students will begin this process with excitement for something out of the norm, but it quickly becomes tedious and leads to student disengagement.

Once students have made some progress on mastering the basic concepts, you can introduce them to the idea of gamification. There are typing games available for children of all ages depending on their skill level. These games should be used to reinforce concepts that have already been taught in class as an extra incentive to encourage students to practice those skills.

In the end, the goal is for students to type fluently without much thought about where their fingers belong on the keys. It should become second nature for them to allow their thoughts to float onto the screen when writing essays or drafting a project for school. These same skills will translate to the workplace in years to come.

How can you tell when students have mastered the desired level of efficiency? Require everyone to make it to a specific level before moving on. Make sure that you can check in to see how often the student practices the game and how effectively they are completing each level. This method can remove some of the pressure for students who are nervous test-takers and restore joy to the learning process again.

The idea behind using gamification to teach keyboarding is to introduce fun into an otherwise boring activity. Teachers can come up with their concepts for interactive games that keep the entire class involved. For example, they may come up with a racing game or a speed test to determine how quickly the students are catching on to the material.

Gamification is becoming a critical component for teaching core content to students in today’s classroom. Keyboarding is another major example that can benefit from this engaging method. Using some of these helpful suggestions, teachers may find it easier than ever before to teach their students to type a little faster.