Blog #7 Writing vs Typing

Blog #7 Writing vs Typing
I have recently been subbing in a 6th grade class and have been astonished at much they have to write. They have to write everything down from math problems, social studies answers, reading class discussion questions, and on top of this, they have a writing portion. My questions are this, are we making our students write too much? Should we be teaching and encouraging typing along with writing?

I know cursive is important. Students should be able to write in print and cursive, but are we making them write too much, and what is the purpose for all this writing? Are we assigning writing assignments in order to improve their handwriting skills? My impression is that writing class is in place in order for them to learn how to put together thoughts into proper grammatical form. Is there any way to decrease the writing time and increase learning and comprehension?

I think we can eliminate some of the wasted time due to hand writing time. We should introduce typing classes. Writing classes are very important! They need to learn how to spell and put thoughts on paper. They need to learn correct punctuation as well, but can’t we “kill two birds with one stone?” Can’t they do all this while typing?

I have a student that types instead of writes during writing time. Alphasmart is the name of the keyboard he uses. It’s not a laptop, but a keyboard with a screen. He plugs in a USB cord and prints off his paper. With wireless printers, every student would not have to hook up their keyboard. They could do all this wirelessly.

Writing class would be a natural time to implement typing skills. Kids get plenty of time to write throughout the school day so this would not sacrifice their handwriting skill development. This presentation gives some positive benefits that keyboarding has to offer such as improving manual dexterity, spelling, and reading.

On the other hand, I did hear a mother tell her student, “You do not need to write in cursive, you never will again for the rest of your life. All you need to do is write your name!” On the extreme end, some people feel like cursive is outdated and needs to be thrown out. I disagree; it is important but let’s prepares students for the real world. They will need to type when they get to junior high, high school, and an occupation. Writing and typing should get equal importance in 5th and 6th grade in my opinion.

Is this even a debate in the education realm? It was hard to find much information. I think this is an important debate that will gain more heated debate attention in the future.
What do you think?

Philip