Test Drive: The Writer Keyboarding instruction tool

Advanced Keyboarding Technologies has created "The Writer" as an affordable, instructional tool to help students master keyboarding skills and the writing process. The Writer is a sturdy keyboard appliance with a small LCD character display and a flash memory. The Writer lets students enter text, edit or save it, check for spelling errors, and even look up synonyms for over-used words using a convenient thesaurus. Then, using an optional infrared sensor, the text may be sent directly to a printer or to a computer for further editing. A password system allows up to 16 students to safely use The Writer. And its file system allows multiple documents to be stored in a convenient folder.

The heart of The Writer is a well-thought-out, built-in keyboard instructional system. The Writer comes preprogrammed with 116 keyboarding lessons that are presented sequentially—and are not game-based. To progress from one lesson to the next, students must meet basic benchmarks for speed and accuracy (which are set by the teacher), and finger positioning. Points are awarded three times during each lesson to reinforce the proper positioning of fingers on the home-row keys. The Writer can assess students' typing speed and accuracy over a 60-second period, and it provides detailed progress reports that may be printed out. The Writer also offers a unique shift-key reinforcement tool. Advanced Keyboarding Technologies recognizes that no device will completely replace a teacher. A detailed Instruction Guide is provided to help teachers with varying experience effectively organize and teach keyboarding skills.

Besides having a worthwhile keyboarding program built-in and a convenient file system, The Writer is ruggedly designed and has a firm keyboard feel. It was quick to start up and simple to use. However, The Writer is not a full computer and will not go beyond basic keyboarding and word-processing functions. And like similar products, the 40-character, four-line screen display does not give students a true sense of their whole writing project; they're unable to see more than a small bit of it at one time.

Prices begin at $189 for a single, basic Writer, plus $25 for an infrared receiver that's necessary to transfer files to a computer or printer. If you are planning to help students master keyboarding skills, if your students have only a limited time in a computer lab, or if you are looking to maximize your technology budget, you will want to take a close look at The Writer to see what it can do for you.