QwertyTown

QwertyTown is a subscription-based website that teaches kids keyboarding skills. Navigate to leveled lessons from a student dashboard, where you can also customize your avatar, access Qmail for sending messages to friends, and challenge others in Head2Head matchups. These social options can be unlocked when certain levels are complete, or teachers can modify those settings. Parents or teachers have access to all Qmail transcripts.

Abby, a purple-haired guide, introduces you to QwertyTown (you can either read her instructions or listen as she tells you what to do). Scaffolded lessons have three parts: Demo, Guided Practice 1 and 2, and Independent. Hand outlines within the lessons show which fingers to use with which keys. In Demo, students are introduced to new keys, and can try pressing them themselves. In the two levels of Guided Practice, students type letter patterns with only the new keys, and are given help if they type incorrect keys. In Independent, students type patterns with both new and previously learned keys. They are assessed on their WPM speed and accuracy and awarded medals for reaching certain thresholds, along with QwertyCoins, in-game currency that can be used to purchase items for their avatar. The lessons cover the letters of the alphabet, the digits 0-9, commonly used punctuation and symbols, and other keys, such as Tab, Enter, and so forth.

QwertyTown provides a full curriculum for students to learn keyboarding, digital literacy, and safe online communication skills. Its three-part lesson format introduces each element, gives students a chance to practice, and then tests them on the new information in combination with previously learned skills. The design is cute and the voice-overs are excellent. The Head2Head challenges promote fluency in students' typing, since they're racing their opponent to complete a typing challenge as accurately as possible. Qmail gives students an opportunity to use their typing skills to communicate with others in their own words, at their own speed.

Though the site has real value, it could be improved with a few updates. The site contains some misspellings, such as "eyeware" instead of "eyewear" in the avatar customization screen. Also, each key on the keyboard is given a color, and when students type letters, the letters are then displayed in that key's color. Because of this, it's very difficult for students to see when they've mistyped a letter, since it only flashes red for an instant. Perhaps in higher levels, the rainbow colors could be replaced by a single color, with red showing up (and staying) for mistyped letters. Flexibility for skipping levels, using the Backspace key, and typing more sentences and paragraphs would also be helpful for more experienced students.