Hi Shelia,
SK->I agree. The kids can learn typing skills in jr. or early sr. high.
SK->That's when I learned. My two children just hunt-and-peck for now, and
SK->the amount of typing they do for school essays and reports is so small
SK->that it really doesn't matter.
I strongly disagree. I think they should learn them as soon as they have
the finemotor skills to do so. Hunt and peck is hard to unlearn.  You
probably saw my earlier post about this.
SK->Hmm. I wonder if this is a case of things being in the "eye of the
SK->beholder". Simply because some reports were done on computer and
SK->_looked_ nicer, doesn't mean they were better. Content is more important
SK->than appearance to a large extent. Are you implying that the kids
SK->working without a computer are naturally at a disadvantage to present a
SK->nice looking report? I wonder if you aren't a bit biased toward the
SK->technology?
   This is important. I tend to recognize that the computer use may
   contribute to   The attention to detail rubric score  of some
   students' projects. It's only one part of an assessment and it's only
   true for some students. Artisticly inclined students can often turn
   out work as superior as  computer assisted work. But for the most
   part I can see an advantage to computer access . It's not fair, and
   it's not allways true, but it's there.
SK->convinced that having access to a computer automatically implies for all
SK->kids and advantage in report writing.
Not if they don't go beyond a first draft of their work no, but if they
can keyboard, so that it takes less time to but down a draft, then
revise it using the editing commands you might change your mind.  And of
course the exceptions would almost overwhelm the rule. It's not
automatic, it requires work of course, but it's a lot less labor
intensive than writing it out in longhand where so many students find it
very difficult to revise. Computers make revision more fun.
Peace
Bob
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