[Localization] content for typing turtle

[Edward Cherlin]

On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 11:31 PM, Wade Brainerd <wadetb at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I am seeking educators / writers to develop content for Typing Turtle,
> a kid-focused interactive touch typing training program for the XO
> that is currently in the pre-Alpha stage.

Are you including non-Latin alphabets and other writing systems? Will
you include the Dvorak layout for English? At one time I could
touch-type in eight writing systems, so I might be able to give you
some assistance.


> We need to develop lesson material which teaches children how to type
> correctly, and does so in an engaging and entertaining way.  This
> includes more than just teaching which finger presses which key.  For
> example, taking breaks and having good posture are also important.
>
> Secondly, we need to collect snippets of public domain text to be used
> for practice typing.  These will need to be of varying difficulty
> levels and lengths.  Possible sources might be Wikipedia articles, or
> Project Gutenberg.

We need some preliminary exercises for each keyboard layout, first to
get the relative locations of the letters, and then to type single
words using progressively greater stretches.

> If you are interested in helping with this project, please let me
> know!  A good place to start would be researching educational
> approaches to touch typing.  Download an evaluation of Mavis Beacon
> Teaches Typing (the good old standard) from download.com, or create a
> free account on typingweb.com.  The Typing Turtle activity user
> interface is structured similarly to these programs.
>
> I would like to initially develop content for at least English and
> Spanish, though we could start with one and then translate to the
> other.

We will need the French AZERTY layout for some Francophone countries.
Then we will need Mongolian Cyrillic, Cambodian Khmer, Ethiopian
Amharic, and Arabic alphabet layouts for Arabic (Palestinian
territories), and Afghan Pashto and Dari. There are no doubt others
that will be of importance soon.

> Thanks in advance,
>
> Wade Brainerd
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