Re: Tech the children

I want to thank all members who have taken the time to follow this discussion.  Your input has helped me greatly.  And I want to thank especially Bjorn and Keith.  

To Bjorn I have this to say. I was so excited about my newest statistic concerning the percentages of those who touch type versus those who hunt and peck that I wanted to use those facts right away without completely analyzing what the facts really meant.

I am still analyzing those facts.  

Now as for Keith, thank you for sharing your personal experience with learning to Dvorak.  I had never even considered the health problems with Qwerty.  My story is quite different and although this information is available on the http://YesWeCanDvorak.com About me page I will take the time to share it here.  I beg your indulgence.

I have known about the Dvorak keyboard since I was in the 7th or 8th grade when I saw a documentary about a girl who had learned to type on a Dvorak and had Amazing speed.  In our school system typing class was a mandatory class for 9th graders.  When I got into 9th grade I asked our typing teacher if I could be taught on a Dvorak typewriter and she said no.  So, I decided to take a voluntary F or failure for typing class.  I took the typing class period as a free period and took the F.  For me that was a huge decision as I was a straight A student for most of my years in school.

     Since I desired to learn how to type on a Dvorak keyboard I realized that it was up to me to find typewriters that had the Dvorak legend on the keys.  My first Dvorak typewriter was made by the Brother Company.  It was small and portable.   I found the learning to type on the Dvorak was really easy as for the most part your hands are positioned over the home row keys and you don't have to produce those fantastic keyboard gymnastics that are required for those who learn to type on a Qwerty.

     In high school I took a computer programming course in Basic Computer language.  So when the Commodore 64 computer came out years later I was able to write a program that changed my Commodore from Qwerty to Dvorak.  Later on I finally was able to find an IBM Selectric that had the Dvorak legend on its keys.  
     
     Then came the age of personal computers and ever since Microsoft put out its Windows 3.1 the Dvorak keyboard was an option in all of Microsoft's operating systems.  So as soon as I got my first personal computer the first thing I did was buy labels from Hooleon Corporation and relabeled my keyboard.  I did that for years until I was finally able to get a Kenesis Advantage keyboard which has both the Qwerty and Dvorak legends on it.

I share all of that with the group because I am sure that many of you besides Keith switched due to repetitive strain injuries. RSI.  I have never had them at all.  So I went and did some research on the subject and what I found out was truly amazing.

RSI's are the leadinng cause of injury related costs to business in America.  And I imagine for the rest of the world also.  The facts are very disturbing on the one hand and in the other almost make me want to back track on my request to allow dual labeling. 

Keith I slightly edited your statement and posted it on my blog.  See http://LightoftheWorld.com The blog is immediately under the home page video.

Once again thank you all
Gregory 

--- In [email protected], Keith Ratliff <dracorat@...> wrote:
>
> I've been teaching mine too. They hate that I force them to use their
> fingers in the proper rows (I don't let them type with only the index
> finger) but already, they know generally how to find the key they want.
> 
> Where I've run in to difficulty so far is the school. They don't like
> difference. They want the kids to learn one thing and one thing only -
> QWERTY. Never mind any benefits - if it's not QWERTY, it's not acceptable.
> 
> So my daughter doesn't know it yet, but if she "barely passes" school
> typing, I'll be OK with it. Because she won't "barely pass" her Dad's typing
> instruction.
> 
> --Keith
> 
> On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 13:53, fredcraven <yahoogroups@...>wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> > > Teach the children. They will change the world.
> >
> > Taught/Teaching all my kids the Simplified layout. It's working real well.
> > My college aged kids tend to use it as security device too, leaving the
> > keyboard as QWERTY. It totally freaks out their friends, but most people
> > don't have a problem with it. And my kids know to change the layout back
> > when they use a shared computer.
> >
> > Oh, and they can type like the wind.
> >
> > Fred
> >
> >  
> >
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>