Typing For Fun!

Reviewer: Kathy Rodriguez
k.rodriguez@snet.net
Teacher of a Gifted Program
Farm Hill School
Middletown, CT

Software: Typing For Fun!
Sunburst Communications, Inc.
http://www.sunburst.com
CD-ROM Mac/Win
I evaluated this program on a Macintosh G3 and Win 98.
Date: April 28, 1999
List price: $59.95
Rating: 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, Way Cool!

The Type for Fun Program consists of four segments. The program is colorful, attractive, and the sound and sound effects, are incredible. The directions can be read or verbal. The students just loved the catchy intergalactic graphics. Teacher options allow you to dictate vocabulary levels and select which letters you can have you students practice. And... it really works. The students are not bored with the typing aspect. In fact, you hear them reading the letters aloud to the beat of the music as they type. They really enjoy this arcade-type game! Each game strengthens typing skills and the students can keep track of their progress by viewing "Top 10" score lists.

Galaxy Taxi is our first stop. The main focus of this game is speed and accuracy. The student types the sentence at the top of the screen. When you type it correctly, a new sentence will appear. Even the primary level offers sentences rather than words. It lets you know when you've typed the wrong letter with a gentle sound and the letter types in red. Zworg Explore has you practicing with a word, phrases, or specific letters. If you type correctly the animation is cute. Again, this game is timed as well. Spacerocks has you typing words that will shoot devices to destroy space rocks. Power Up! is the last of the four games. Again, you are typing against time and must type the words correctly. Each of the games are just a little different.

All of the games are well done. The reinforcement is diversified enough so that the students enjoy learning to type. The teacher can actually customize the typing with the word list, punctuation, and numbers.

I like the fact that Typing for Fun really teaches the students and they can individually progress at their own rate and they like playing it.

Typing For Fun! is definitely Way Cool because it causes excitement in the classroom. In fact, I had to put headphones at the computers because everyone would gather at the computers and sing the letters as the typist was typing. The rest of the class wasn't getting anything done!

The only drawback to the program was the fact that the program won't run without the CD-ROM. So we always have to go to the collection and wait for it to boot up. It's more of an annoyance than a problem.

I think Grades three through five are a perfect target audience and can learn to type using this program. I had all my fifth graders field test it and they all enjoyed it and wanted to play it each time they came to my class.

WAY COOL rating 10!!!!

Note: Claire Kubasik of Sunburst offered this comment regarding the need to run the program from the CD-ROM. "A full install does away with the need to have the CD-ROM resident in the drive. However, it does take 71 MB of hard drive space. Since schools may not want to give that much space over to this program, it's possible the issue is moot."

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