Poll: What did you learn to type on?

[Teachin'Mine]

Yes I know that ended with a preposition, but on here I don't care. :lol:

Edited August 15, 2011 by Teachin'Mine

[Chris in VA]

Manual typewriter in 9th grade, then took a course the first year I was married and had an IBM Selectric. I thought my college typewriter was pretty slick because it had correction tape right in with the regular ribbon--all I had to do to correct was backspace on the correction key and retype. :D

[Teachin'Mine]

Manual typewriter in 9th grade, then took a course the first year I was married and had an IBM Selectric. I thought my college typewriter was pretty slick because it had correction tape right in with the regular ribbon--all I had to do to correct was backspace on the correction key and retype. :D

 

Our class had all manual typewriter except for two IBMs. They were dream machines. :lol: Correction tape would have been amazing!!! :D

[Carrie12345]

Technically, I started to learn on a manual typewriter at home but, yeah, that was already considered "old" technology. In school, I learned to type on a keyboard. In fact, it was a .5 credit course!

[angela in ohio]

I was just explaining a few days ago to the young people in my college computer science class how I learned to type on a typewriter, and they looked at me like I was a dinosaur. :D I remember buying a "word processor" in college (a monitor and keyboard with a printer in it basically) and everyone wanted to use it, because you could fix mistakes before you printed the page and save files for later.

[Matryoshka]

Well, I typed all my high school papers at home on a manual typewriter, but it was all hunt and peck. I learned to touch-type my senior year on an electric typewriter.

 

When I went to college I got an electronic typewriter that had a one-line display before it printed, and printed electronically rather than having actual metal keys - ooh, wasn't I cutting-edge. ;) :lol:

[amydavis]

I'm pretty sure that our typing class in junior high used manual typewriters. But, I'd often go up to my mom's work to use the electric one, so I got practice both ways. Then, my parents purchased what seemed to be an electric typewriter, but it was also a word processor. I remember it had a small display window, where you could preview everything you typed, and then make corrections. You'd hit one key and it would print it all out. Seems like I was technologically challenged though, and didn't use it to the full range of possibilities. It was pretty fancy though! :tongue_smilie:

[Jen in PA]

An Apple II Plus.:D

[Veritaserum]

I've never taken a typing class. I learned on my family's home computer when I was 10 or so.

[Dmmetler]

I said an electric typewriter, because that's what I had at home (my parents bought me one), but I think I started learning on a manual typewriter. Since I have motor skills issues, typing was something that I started learning in 1st grade. It was SO nice when I was able to move to a computer-and by college, I was lugging an IBM PC convertible to classes with me on a luggage cart :)

[Starr]

Not all electric typewriters were the same. ;)

[The Girls' Mom]

Mostly on the older electric typewriters, but I changed highschools several times and one of them (can't remember which) had the old manuals. I loved them...the motion of making that hard return and the clacking sound....sigh.

[sheryl]

Manual

[Punchie]

I learned to type on whatever computer they had in classrooms in 1986 (1st grade). My school had a portable bldg set up that was strictly a computer lab.

[elegantlion]

Manual typewriter at home. By the time I took typing in high school, which I think was a mandatory .5 credit, they were using electrics.

[DusksAngel]

We had a .5 credit typing class. We learned on electronic keyboards (just 2 years before they got computers) :P

[Pamela H in Texas]

In 5th grade (I think it was), we had the opportunity to try out "electives" basically. Each six weeks, we took a different course of interest (there were very limited courses as it was elementary). I took typing for one of mine. It was an electric typewriter. I never took another typing class. However, I've had a computer since jr high, some version or another of the internet since I was 14 (22years), and have been completely addicted for the past 16 years. I have gotten plenty of practice though I sometimes find certain special characters more difficult. Of course, how often does one use certain keys like \ and | or ~ or `???

[momtotkbb]

I selected electric bec my hs had IBM Selectrics ---but in reality I first learned on a manual that my parents had at home.

 

We were recently cleaning out storage at dh's office ---which didn't have a computer until we married 17 years ago and he's just learned to use the internet in the past 2 years ---anyway, my kids were amazed by the dinosaur of a typewriter that he had. It was the old IBM selectric and he also had a more portable Smith-Corona. My 8 yo wanted to know where the monitor was for it!

[livingnlearning]

I learned on a Commodore 64 typing program!

[Susan in the Boonies]

Yes I know that ended with a preposition' date=' but on here [b']I don't care.[/b] :lol:

I don't care, either.

 

But then, I have an ill-trained mind.

 

You brought back memories of my highschool typing class.

 

May I just say: I was an idiot.

 

My mom was STRONGLY encouraging me to learn to type. Learn to type. Learn to type.

 

I was afraid she was trying to box me in so that I would have to become some man's secretary, and the last thing I wanted to be was some man's secretary.

 

So, I resisted and resisted.

 

(This was before the days of the PC)

 

Then, I hit grad school, and suddenly realized that the computer was here to stay, and WHY OH WHY hadn't I improved my speed in typing???

 

Man, that typing teacher drove me nuts.

 

We even had to mess with carbon paper copies back then. When dinosaurs walked the earth. That's why Barney was purple: carbon paper.

Edited August 15, 2011 by Susan in the Boonies

[abacus2]

If I had taken typing in high school, it would have been an electric typewriter. However, I couldn't take typing without losing my number 1 class rank. It might have even dropped me out of the top ten. Typing grades were based on speed, period, not on improvement or effort. I have tiny hands and generally poor motor skills. I might have been able to reach a B level speed. I had been introduced to typing with a computer program in eighth grade and learned fully with a computer program in college. I practiced a lot and have never done better than about 35 WPM.

Edited August 15, 2011 by abacus2

[Ellie]

Technically, you don't learn to type on a computer. You learn keyboard skills. "Typing" includes all the things you never have to do when you're using a computer: inserting paper into the typewriter and making sure it's straight, manually setting margins, learning how many lines are in an inch and how many lines to leave at the top and bottom of a page, returning the carriage at the end of each line (which also includes knowing when to hyphenate words), erasing, using carbon paper, typing on a pre-made form, how to set up a business letter (which, BTW, is still a useful skill), and more.

 

Yup...two years of typing, two years of shorthand, a year of business office machines. :D

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

My first experiences typing were on a manual. The course I took in high school did use electrics.

[TrixieB]

When I went to college I got an electronic typewriter that had a one-line display before it printed, and printed electronically rather than having actual metal keys - ooh, wasn't I cutting-edge. ;) :lol:

My college roommate had a typewriter like that. I was so impressed by the advanced technology!

[woolybear]

I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure it was a manual typewriter. It could've been electric, but that was way back in the early 80s.:D

[TrixieB]

I voted electric... but... I can't remember whether the typewriters in my high school typing class were manual or electric! I must be getting old. :glare:

 

What I do remember is working in one of the libraries at university. One of my duties was typing up overdue notices, and date due cards for the books -- on the library's only typewriter, a MANUAL. This was in the late 80's.

[kchara]

The school I went to my freshman year (HS) had computers, and I started learning on those. Then, my dad had a word processor at home, so I worked on that, too. For some reason, it was huge to me to be a quick typist. :D Don't remember why now.

[arghmatey]

I learned on an electric typewriter my mother gave me for Christmas when I was eight years old. I loved it and wanted a manual one. The first thing I typed was a newsletter for my classmates. I bought one later and don't remember what happened to it.

[LidiyaDawn]

I remember playing on some old typewriters as a kid…but I learned to type on a keyboard. (self taught)

[Spock]

Yes I know that ended with a preposition' date=' but on here I don't care. :lol:[/quote']

 

My school had all manual typewriters (except 2 electrics that were reserved for Typing 2 students). That was the first time I had ever seen a manual typewriter, and I was fascinated. (My parents had an electric typewriter that I was allowed to use sometimes after I finished the typing class.)

 

When I went to college I got an electronic typewriter that I thought was very cool--it had 3 different fonts (type wheels you could change out), and a word processor type function--you could type approximately 3-5 pages into memory and make corrections there before printing onto paper. However, only one line at a time was visible in the little window. I used to let my two older boys type on that when they were 4-6yo, since we had a primitive hand-me-down computer (black and white, no way to connect to internet, only had WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, Notepad, Paint, and Solitaire--and a dot matrix printer with the looping paper) by that point. We got a hand-me-down "real" computer (Windows 95) by the time my 3rd child was a toddler. I don't think my two little ones have ever seen a plain typewriter.

[Amira]

I learned on a keyboard, but that's only because my dad is a computer geek and computers had replaced the typewriter in our house by about 1980. If I hadn't learned to type at home, I would have learned on an electric typewriter at school. I did use an electric typewriter one time to fill out my college applications.

[Calm37]

Manual typewriter in 9th grade, then took a course the first year I was married and had an IBM Selectric. I thought my college typewriter was pretty slick because it had correction tape right in with the regular ribbon--all I had to do to correct was backspace on the correction key and retype. :D

 

Oh, I had such a hard time learning the "new technology" of a Selectric. I remember that I kept grabbing the top of the machine, wanting to move the roller back and forth, but there was nothing but that little ball with the letters on it!

 

Blessings,

Cathy M.

[Susan in the Boonies]

Technically, you don't learn to type on a computer. You learn keyboard skills. "Typing" includes all the things you never have to do when you're using a computer: inserting paper into the typewriter and making sure it's straight, manually setting margins, learning how many lines are in an inch and how many lines to leave at the top and bottom of a page, returning the carriage at the end of each line (which also includes knowing when to hyphenate words), erasing, using carbon paper, typing on a pre-made form, how to set up a business letter (which, BTW, is still a useful skill), and more.

 

Yup...two years of typing, two years of shorthand, a year of business office machines. :D

Of course, if you tell someone in Nashville that you have keyboard skills, that means something altogether different than what you are referring to in your post. :)

 

Context is so important.

[twoforjoy]

I took a typing class in seventh grade, and we used an electric typewriter.

 

In ninth grade I took keyboarding, and we used a computer.

[Running the race]

We had a REALLY old manual typewriter. After that I used an old electric typewriter.

[AndyJoy]

I learned on an electric typewriter in 1995 because I went to a small shoestring-budget private school. The local PS had computers. We had one computer and about 12 donated typewriters, so we rotated around the room each week so that we all got to use the computer at least once over the course of the semester.

 

Our typewriters did not have the built in correction tape, so we used the kind that was rectangular strips in a little case. When you needed to correct you backed up one space, held the strip in place, and retyped the incorrect letter over it.

[LindaWood]

I taught myself with a manual typewriter and an old typing textbook that my parents had. I then took an official typing class in high school which had an electric typewriter. I used my graduation money to buy an electric typewriter to take to college--that was a big deal back then and expensive.

[Sandy in Indy]

When I went to college I got an electronic typewriter that had a one-line display before it printed, and printed electronically rather than having actual metal keys - ooh, wasn't I cutting-edge. ;) :lol:

 

Hey I had one of those my last semester working on my Masters. I thought I was in heaven! No more re-typing the entire page--joy, joy, joy.

 

Learned on a manual in high school--I think it was manual. It's been a very LONG time ago!

[Firefly]

We started with electric typewriters is 7th grade, but by 10th (different school... not sure if that matters) we were learning on a computer keyboard.

[Maus]

My mom had a =tags&ga_search_query=smith_corona&ga_facet="]Smith Corona. She put herself and my dad through college typing term papers on it. She's really fast. She entered a contest about fifteen years ago, just to see if she was still any good and scored 130 wpm.

 

In typing class in High School, we had brand-new IBM Selectric II's, with that ball thingy. My best score was only 45 wpm. Still, when my new phone had swype, it about drove me crazy to learn to use it, because the touch typing is so ingrained.

[Ellie]

Of course, if you tell someone in Nashville that you have keyboard skills, that means something altogether different than what you are referring to in your post. :)

 

Context is so important.

:lol:

 

True dat.

[Mommy22alyns]

Gosh, y'all are OLD! :tongue_smilie: I learned on a computer in high school.

[2_girls_mommy]

I learned at school in typing class on a manual typewriter. Computers was a separate class (and Windows were glass holes in the wall, nothing on a computer :)

 

Then at home we had at first a word processor for reports, later an IBM computer.

 

My first semester all I had was an old manual typewriter. Luckily by the 2nd semester enough people had computers that I could type up my papers at their houses.

 

Thank Goodness after that my school had a computer lab that I could use until I finally got my own!

[Jean in Newcastle]

Gosh, y'all are OLD! :tongue_smilie: I learned on a computer in high school.

 

We had no computers in high school;)

 

Typing class in high school was all manual typewriters except for one electric that was reserved for the fastest typist in class. I never got to use it.

[TrixieB]

Gosh, y'all are OLD! :tongue_smilie: I learned on a computer in high school.

We had computers at home, but there were none at school.

[Julie Smith]

Electric typewriter.

 

But we had a computer at home, and computer labs at school. But the trick was we, as in the students could not goof off on a type writer, and if we made a mistake would have to start over. Built character, or so they said.

 

I do agree with learning to type on something such as a typewritter where you can't possibly be distracted by anything.

[Chris in VA]

Gosh, y'all are OLD! :tongue_smilie: I learned on a computer in high school.

 

Baby.

 

 

 

:D