User's Manual
114
NEO
User Manual
K
EY
W
ORDS
S
MART
A
PPLET
Welcome to KeyWords
The KeyWords SmartApplet develops basic keyboarding skills using fun and
interesting lessons. KeyWords uses a language-based system that entertains
as it trains. It provides cumulative lessons that teach accuracy and speed a
few keys at a time, and it offers encouragement with positive feedback and
helpful hints.
KeyWords also checks progress at each level with typing tests. You can then
view progress reports on the NEO or by using the KeyWords program in
Renaissance Place.
The KeyWords design is based on research about how people learn to type:
• Speed and typing fluency increase more readily if simple words are used
and repeated. The KeyWords method follows this model of repetition,
presenting diverse vocabulary, rhymes, and humor to keep lessons
interesting.
• Typists learn patterns of keystrokes more quickly when they aren’t
interrupted by immediate corrections. The KeyWords error-checking
method emphasizes the importance of words and phrases.
• Speed skills and accuracy are best developed independently. KeyWords
provides separate lessons for these skills. You can set proficiency goals and
view reports as learners test themselves.
• Speed increases with practice typing words and phrases instead of random
letters. By practicing with words and phrases, new typists learn common
letter patterns that are the building blocks for simple and complex words.
This promotes the ability to quickly recognize and type letter combinations
that occur frequently.
KeyWords Versions in NEO 1 and NEO 2
NEO 1 and NEO 2 use different versions of the KeyWords SmartApplet:
KeyWords is used on NEO 1, and KeyWords Wireless is used on NEO 2. The
screens in these versions look different, and at times the steps for a task are
also different. This chapter tells you how to use both versions of the
KeyWords SmartApplet. In most places, the NEO 2 screens are shown.