Introduction

The keyboard practice is used to teach students the location of keys on the keyboard. There are several different key lists to choose from.

How to Use The Keyboard Practice

• Click on the start button to start.
• Click on the stop button to stop.
• Press the Esc key to stop.
• Only lowercase characters are used. (No shift key required.)
• Not all keys will be tested (backspace, enter, arrows). These are used in the Little Turtle Edit Practice.
• Keys are selected randomly from the list of keys.
• The spacebar appears as "Spacebar" in the prompt.

Key Lists

List	Description	Keys
a0	Little Turtle Keys	cdhlmrsu 1234567890
a1	Basic Alphabet + space and period	abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz .1234567890
a2	Basic Alphabet + Special Characters	abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz .1234567890 "-" "=" "[" "]" ";" "'" "," "/" "\"
ar	Characters a - r + space	abcdefghi jklmnopqr
r1	Keyboard Row 1 + space	12345 67890
rq	Keyboard Row Q + space	qwert yuiop
ra	Keyboard Row A + space	asdfg hjkl
rz	Keyboard Row Z + space	zxcv bnm

Selecting a Key List

The default key list is a0.

There are two ways to change the key list.

1. To permanently change the key list edit the file turtle_keyboard_practice.html and change the global variable keyArray to the list you want. You can also create your own key list.

2. To temporarily change the key list, add a parameter to the URL. You can select one of several predefined key lists. For example, to select key list a1: http://server/turtle_keyboard_practice.html?a1

Note:
1. There is a keyboard image associated with each key list.
2. There is a special key list "ar" that contains the letters a through r that was requested by a teacher.

Internals

1. When the start button is pressed:
   • Play starts.
   • The key list is randomized.
   • The stop button is displayed.
   • The first character is displayed.
2. When the correct key is pressed the next character is displayed.
3. If the student presses an incorrect key:
• A sound will play.
• An error symbol will be displayed.
4. At the end of the list of keys or when the student has entered 30 keys correctly:
   • Play stops.
   • A (different) sound will play.
   • The start button is displayed.

Note: Some of the programs behavior is controlled with true/false flags in the code. For example, the sounds and the display of the error symbol can be turned on or off with a flag.