PLUK News feed

Online Keyboarding Sites, Reviews, and Resources

1. http://www.superkids.com/a23b/pages/reviews/typing - This site offers a good review of many typing programs appropriate for a range of school-age children, including a review of my personal favorite: Adventrues in Typing with Timon and Pumbaa, Disney, approximately $10.00, usually available on-line.

2. http://typing-for-kids-software-revie.toptenreviews.com/ - This site also offers a good review of ten popular typing programs for children.

3. http://files.uberdownloads.com/apps/tuxtyping/index.php - This site provides a free download of a typing tutor program that is very visually attractive and engaging, particularly for younger children.

4. http://alison.com/courses/Touch-Typing-Training - This site provides a free online course that is engaging and appropriate for older students.

5. http://www.kidsdomain.com/brain/computer/type.html - This site provides an entertaining introductory program for letter location and introductory keyboarding skills.

6. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/ - This site offers levels of typing instruction, visuals are attractive, audio is entertaining (imagine a Scottish goat as the instructor) and it offers both visual and auditory reinforcement. Great site!

Google Lime Scholarship for Students with Disabilities

Link: Scholarship  Access to knowledge is our thing. When it comes to higher education for promising scholars, we don’t want anything to stand in the way. That’s why we’re proud to partner with Lime. Google is committed to helping the innovators of the future make the most of their talents by providing scholarships and networking retreats for computer science students with disabilities. Recipients of the Google Lime Scholarship will receive a scholarship for the 2009–2010 academic year. Selected students will also be invited to attend the all-expenses-paid retreat at the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA, in 2010. Scholarships will be awarded based on the strength of candidates’ academic background and demonstrated passion - $10,000USD for those studying in the US and $5,000CAD for those studying in Canada (based on average tuition costs).

NetworkWorld: 11-year-old takes school network by the horns

Link: Jon Penn

When Victory Baptist School, a small private school in Sherwood, Ark., was struggling to keep its computer network together last year, an 11-year-old student named Jon Penn stepped in as network manager.

BillingsGazette.com: Student meticulously crafts vision for school

Link: BillingsGazette.com

At his computer, 17-year-old Evan Fritz dreams of environmentally friendly buildings made of renewable resources and powered by alternative energy.

His teacher, Margo Haak, dreams, too.

Fritz is a student at the Billings Educational Academy, located on busy Central Avenue. The small private school serves students ranging in age from 6 to 17 in an old cinderblock storefront that is surrounded by traffic and parking lots.

LATimes.com: Boy is empowered by his weakness

Link: LATimes.com

Michael Guggenheim's dysgraphia, a learning disorder that impairs his writing, spurred him to open a nonprofit that teaches homeless students how to use computers. At a recent tutoring session, Michael moved between the laptops used by shelter residents Alicia Lewis and Heaven Sanders, both 7. He coached them for 30 minutes on typing their names, then switched to a half hour of vocabulary and math games. But Michael is not just another teacher. He is a 12-year-old sixth-grader in California. He can't drive, vote or write much with a pencil, but he started a nonprofit when he was 11 and teaches computer skills to elementary students once a week. He doesn't regard his dysgraphia, a learning disorder that severely impairs writing, as a disability. Instead, he has turned it into a driving force.

Safe Computing with Kiddix

Link: Kiddix
The Kiddix Computing Platform 1.0 was designed from the ground up with your family's needs and safety in mind. Designed for elementary school children, the platform includes a word processor, calendar, email, web browser, games, educational material, a suite of innovative parental control tools, and more!

2007 Summer Academy for Advancing Deaf & Hard of Hearing in Computing

A program of the Alliance for Access to Computing Careers (AccessComputing) University of Washington
We are raising the bar in computer education for deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind students, who, as a group are underutilized in computer fields including Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Information Science, Information Systems, and Information Technology. This program is especially designed for deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind students with skills in math or science who may be considering computing as a major.