[mrmagill]

I teach keyboarding and technology to students grades 5-8 and would like to find an outstanding Windows-based tutoring program for the keyboarding portion. All computers are Pentium III or better with 128+ MB RAM. We do not have Internet access in the classrooms, so web-based services are out. Ours is a private Christian school with next to no budget for this.

So far, we've been using Mavis Beacon 5 that was donated, we have just enough licenses to cover the active students. I also tried Knowledge Adventure's Typing Tutor 10, as someone years ago had donated a bunch of them to us.

Of the two, Mavis is the best so far, but as with anything that goes on for a 13-week trimester (this is an elective class) can become very routine (ok, BORING!) doing the same things every day. I add to the class by teaching Spreadsheet use, giving creative writing assignments, web page creation and so on so that they are required to practice what they're learning. We're also introducing PowerPoint-type presentations, using OpenOffice as our all-in-one package.

I would like to hear from others teaching such classes as to how they keep their classes interesting, what they do to vary the "flavor" of their teaching, and so on.

Please contact me either by replying here or directly at mrmagill<img src="images/smilies/sym... />charter.net, and feel free to pass my address or this message on to other teachers/friends you know who may have ideas.

Mark Magill
Kingsview Christian School
North Bend, Oregon