QUERKY <>?@#

Loved this on Matt Jones' blog:

'And yet-to-be-knighted Steve Jobs on tablet PC's and the non-demise of the keyboard:
" There are no plans to make a tablet. It turns out people want keyboards. When Apple first started out, People couldn't type. We realized: Death would eventually take care of this."'

I'd totally agree on the tablet PC front, having spent some months last year in close proximity to quite a number of these odd devices, in the name of academic research.

But as far as youngsters being more competent typists than oldsters, I'd beg to differ. I'm doing fieldwork right now that's bringing to light a lot of one/two-fingered typists. and they ain't that old. But there are plenty of over-50s who can really hammer the keys.

What has struck me over the last few months is that
- some organisations have only just got rid of the typing pool, which used to be full of women
- everyone is now required to be a typist (every the night time security guard), male and female
- Americans (male and female) get taught to type at school, but we Brits don't
- Americans in London are the fastest typists I know (the men particularly)

If the QWERTY keyboard is here to stay - but software is so ephemeral - how come kids in UK schools get to learn Excel, but don't get taught how to touch type?

The Open University is about to remedy this for its students, apparently, by putting students through a particular typing tutor - an idea dreamt up by one its its American lecturers, horrified at the lack of keyboard skills in the academy on this side of the pond. Perhaps school is the appropriate place to teach this really useful skill - alongside other skills such as reading, writing and 'rithmatic.