Touch Typing

Touch typing is a skill that is largely being lost. Is that a bad thing. I'm not entirely sure, but I certainly do still see a use for it. While it is possible that in another 3 or 4 years our children will be able to speak naturally to their computers in order to create documents, program, and perform other tasks, I don't think the keyboard interface is going away anytime soon. Part of the reason for that is the comfort and familiarity of the keyboard. Even touchscreen phones largely use QWERTY keyboards even though we know that it isn't be best layout, it is familiar. Why isn't it the best? I won't go into that here, but you can read this link if you are interested: http://www.howtogeek.com/189270/alternative-keyboard-layouts-explained-dvorak-colemak-and-whether-you-should-care/

So why do we teach it that way? Again, familiarity. You can bet that in just about any English speaking location in the world you will be able to walk up to a computer and type in the QWERTY keyboard. The ability to touch type can save you time and frustration in a variety of situations. So, yes, I think it is worth taking the time to teach and learn.

Here a couple of basic tutorials:
https://www.typingclub.com/
http://www.typingstudy.com/lesson/1

This one has some tutorials along with basic games:
http://www.typingtest.com/

This one is fun for improving speed and accuracy once you get a little better:
http://play.typeracer.com/

These are all free tools and as such add supported. There are some good paid apps out there as well, but honestly, the best way to get better is just to practice. Personally, I didn't really learn to type until I started using instant messenger in college. I found that I couldn't keep up with the conversation, so I forced myself to learn to touch type. There are some fun games that you can play in class with Google docs like a "round robin" story or challenging students by having the cover their hands with a piece of cloth to see if they can type a phrase or vocabulary definition.