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This study investigated the effect of a touch‐typing course on the spelling and narrative‐writing skills on the computer of elementary school students. Data of 207 students in Grades 4, 5, and 6 were analysed using a pretest–posttest design. Students in the experimental group (n = 154) followed a touch‐typing course, and those in the control group (n = 53) did not. The experimental group showed more progress in typing, spelling, and narrative‐writing skills on the computer than the control group. It can be concluded that the touch‐typing course had a positive effect, not only on typing skills but also on spelling and narrative‐writing skills on the computer. Lay Description: What is known Typing skills are important for the quality of the typewritten text output.In touch‐typing with automaticity of transcription, workting‐memory load is decreased.Studies on the effect of a touch‐typing course are rare. What this paper adds This study investigated the effect of a touch‐typing course on spelling and narrative writing.We used a design with an experimental (with typing‐course) and a control group (no course)The experimental group showed more improvement in typing, spelling and narrative writing. Implications for practitioners It is important for the quality of student's text output to learn how to touch‐typeTouch‐typing can be learned in a teacher-directed course, containing 15 training sessions of 1.5 hours eachPractice of 20 minutes a day is necessary [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of a research project in which we transformed a primary (grade) 3 science curriculum for delivery via mobile technologies, and a teacher enacted the lessons over the 2009 academic year in a class in a primary school in Singapore. The students had a total of 21 weeks of the mobilized lessons in science, which were co-designed by teachers and researchers by tapping into the affordances of mobile technologies for supporting inquiry learning in and outside of class. We examine the learning effectiveness of the enacted mobilized science curriculum. The results show that among the six mixed-ability classes in primary (grade) 3 in the school, the experimental class performed better than other classes as measured by traditional assessments in the science subject. With mobilized lessons, students were found to learn science in personal, deep and engaging ways as well as developed positive attitudes towards mobile learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]