On Sep 22, 2014, at 4:52 PM, Freelance Traveller <editor@freelancetraveller.com> wrote:

> This is a perfect illustration of what I mean above - sure, you can be
> 99% accurate in depressing keys on a keyboard, but could that program
> detect whether or not you were using the 'correct' fingers on the
> 'correct' keys, or did it merely detect that the 'correct' key was
> depressed when it was expected?

Well, that’s  kind of irrelevant. The aim in teaching a muscle-memory based skill like typing is speed and accuracy. The conventional way has proven to be the most ‘efficient’ given that the qwerty keyboard was designed to slow typists down, so the presumption is that the ‘right’ fingers are being used if the marks used to test this are being hit.

Also the earliest lessons are oriented around getting the fingers placed correctly, so if those parts have been passed satisfactorily, the presumption is that if the student is hitting the speed and accuracy benchmarks, the technique is correct.

Timothy COULD be the world’s fastest two-fingered typist, and the training program wouldn’t know, but it wouldn’t care, because it’s job was to teach him to type accurately and fast.

--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs