Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor Review
Can you spell B-A-D B-U-Y?
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You can buy it at RegNow for that price.
The Extra Practice Wizard will create custom drills for your problem keys.
Leaves out significant teaching points.
The Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor is a cute typing program. The main character, a Viking, is shown throughout the program and it makes it seem kind of fun. The general layout is very clean. The instructions are written in large type which makes it easy to read. Unfortunately, the writing is very poor. It appears to have been written by someone who knows British English as a second language. Here is an example of an instruction: “you’ll advance through the keys quickly until you meet ones that you are not so good at.” This type of writing, along with unusual punctuation and grammar gets the point across, if a bit awkwardly.
It seems like someone on the development team that created this program really took an interest in how to teach students how to type. There are a couple of fun games to play. After each drill, encouragement is given. Also, this program offers the student a chance to print out a paper copy of the keyboard, which students frequently want to do. I printed out the keyboard and it showed keys in the wrong place! The keyboard on the screen for the lessons is correct.
When I used the help system, it was worthless. There was a long speech about the DVORAK keyboard and how much more efficient it is. But there was NO help provided on the options and features of the program. At the beginning of the program, the little Viking tries to show the correct typing position. If everyone followed the Viking’s example, we might all have carpal tunnel syndrome.
Overall, there are many bright spots in the program. But for the price it is not worth it. Too many errors and poor typing instruction make this program a clunker.
At the most fundamental level, a typing program should tell you where to put your fingers for each key and when to use them. This program leaves out instruction for even the most basic keys, like the space bar and shifting. What were they thinking?