Touch Typing lessons for free online with certification

We are in a generation where the knowledge of typing is as important as knowing how to write in cursive language. But still the necessary skills are imparted only in writing and not in typing. If children are taught how to type from early on it might save so much of their precious time in future!

Knowing how to type fast implies you can communicate quickly on the various online platforms and possessing the right technique is quite important to achieve such enviable typing speeds. What I mean to say is most of us people in the beginning rush through typing with an aim to type as fast as we can.

But speed comes with practice and practice must be done only once you can visualize the keyboard in your mind i.e. You know the precise locations of all the keys on your keyboard and do not have to search for them.This requires some initial training and lots of practice.

A trained or a seasoned typist would hardly be looking at the keyboard. Moreover, such a person types without making all those sounds that an amateur would make while typing. This is achieved by a technique called Touch typing. In this your index fingers lie on the f and j keys (these can be identified even with eyes closed since they have slight bumps.) and all the subsequent fingers resting on the adjacent keys in the natural order.

The starting position will look like this:

Here are a few sites for you to learn touch typing.

Typing.com

Previously known as typingweb.com, this site is suitable for people of all ages and has a visually appealing interface with regards to typing. This is by far the best site that I encountered while looking for typing lessons.

Salient Features:

• Teachers can use the site to track Students in real time.
• No limits to the number of students.
• Detailed graphs and statistics to track progress.
• Trophies and fun-filled typing games to motivate students.
• 9 types of Skins to choose from.
• All International keyboards are supported.
• Ten key certifications and General certifications
• A blog with all the tips to stay away from injuries arising from prolonged typing and latest information about the site.

To get started click here :Typing.com

Ratatype

Features:

• Modern Look and Feel
• Facebook linking allows you to compete with friends.
• Typing tests and Certifications for the same.
• A brief page describing the basics of touch typing labelled Learn.

To give this a try click here: Ratatype

LearnTyping.org

A very popular site with all the required resources to master typing.

Features:

• Lessons ranging from beginner to advanced.
• Typing Games.
• Timed typing tests.
• Keyboard shortcuts.

Typingstudy.com

This site has 15 lessons with games and a speed test to measure your typing progress.

Features:

• Simple and user-friendly.
• International Keyboards supported.

Typing-lessons.org

Peter's online Typing course has got three basic parts.

• Preliminaries to teach you the dos and the don'ts of touch typing.
• Typing lessons for practice.
• Typing exercises to test you.
• You can also make your own free exercise.

Powertyping.com

An added feature on this site is the radio whose beats are as per your typing speed to encourage rhythmic typing!

The following softwares work on all kind of OS.

• amphetype
• klavaro
• tipp10

If you have come across a great site for Touch Typing which can be listed above, feel free to post them in the comments below. I am open to any changes that can be made to this hub to make it more useful.

• http://blog.typingweb.com/
• http://www.typing.com/typingtutor/
• http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/cursive-writing-obsolete-schools-teach-programming-instead/
• http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech072.shtml
• http://www.ratatype.com/
• http://www.typingstudy.com/
• http://www.learntyping.org/
• http://typing-lessons.org/