ConnSENSE Review: Hollywood High

The Writer

Advanced Keyboard Technologies (AKT)
Paso Robles, CA
http://www.keyboardinstructor.com
800-797-7121

The Writer: $189 with discounts when more than 9 are purchased.
Deluxe Mobile Lab: $5,975 includes 30 Writer Units, a mobile cart, Video Keyboard Instruction Series, Teachers Guide, 6 IR Receivers for Mac, PC, or USB, and 30 Cases and batteries. Discount for 4 or more labs.
Infrared Receiver and Cable Set $25
Teacher's Guide $29
Keyboard Instruction Video Series $69

Rating: A

The Writer is a keyboard I discovered in the FDLRS computer lab at the ATIA Conference this Student using The Writer year. This is a portable battery operated (three AAA batteries run for up to 300 hours) writing tool that has two functions: keyboarding skill development, and improving writing skills.

When The Writer is first started, the student is asked to enroll in a work folder (type in folder name, student and teacher name). Doing this creates a personal work folder (F1-F8) for the student under that name. These work folders can be password protected and thus as many as sixteen students could use the same keyboard.

Next the student can choose to begin keyboarding instruction, or begin writing a composition.

If keyboarding is chosen:

The Writer's keyboarding program is called KeyAcademy and begins by establishing home row hand position and then builds speed and accuracy through a series of lessons. I tried the keyboarding program, but failed Lesson 1, Level 1. I was way too slow and inaccurate. This just turned on my competitive spirit and I ripped through lessons 1 through 3 at Level 1.

There are three Levels with a total of 116 lessons. Each level raises the words per minute and accuracy benchmarks, but fortunately these benchmarks can be customized for each student. I'd love to try the last lesson, but I'm not sure I want to go through that many exercises to get there. I'm convinced that anyone who progresses through this series will become quite an accurate and speedy touch typer.

Lesson 1 concentrates on the home row. As you type asdf asdf as as df df asdf asdf a "Hit Home Row" flashes and you have a second or two to gain a point by hitting the home row keys all together. There was also a lot of jkl; jkl; jkl; jkl; and then la da lad sad ss aa dd ll kk jjkk jkl; Clearly this can be a motivating way to teach keyboarding skills presented in a sequential pattern.

After each lesson a report like my last one (Lesson 3, Level 1) appears on the screen: Home Row 3 out of 3, Speed 38 Words Per Minute, and 97% accuracy. The program keeps track of each student's work and the teacher can view these records on The Writer or they can be sent to a desktop to be viewed and stored.

If writing is chosen

A new file is opened with a heading automatically added including the names of the teacher, student, title, and the date.

Once a composition has been completed, Auto-Thesaurus will indicate the overused words a particular student may have used in his/her writing. These will be highlighted automatically and a list of options for each overused word is provided to choose from.

When a composition is printed, a self-editing checklist is added at the bottom of each file. The checklist reminds the student to run the spell checker, check punctuation, check sentence fragments and run-ons, etc. When ready, the student can print the composition without the checklist.

Files on The Writer can be sent to a desktop computer. First an infrared receiver is plugged into the computer's USB port and then The Writer is simply aimed at the receiver while you press "send" on The Writer. Keyboard Reports can also be sent to a desktop computer in a similar fashion.

The company says they will have a word prediction program for The Writer shipping by August for $49.00.

The FDLRS person I talked to in the lab was very much impressed with this writing tool. She was particularly impressed with the material in the teacher's guide. It contains information on getting started, staff development, blackline masters, keyboarding lessons, writing topics, and much more.

I think good keyboarding skills are extremely important for most students. My wife and I both took typing when we were in high school and both our boys did as well. Starting this training at the elementary school level may be a better practice and The Writer could provide well-structured, brief, daily practice for good habit development. Once keyboarding skills are learned The Writer can be used for book reports, creative writing, essays, etc.

The Writer is a very nice piece of hardware with lots of help for the teacher in using it with students, and it's being offered at a bargain price!