IT Mouse Skills

A series of activities specially designed to teach mouse skills in an entertaining and visually appealing atmosphere. Learners are taken stage by stage through the many applications of the mouse. Move the mouse over an object, drag and drop, drag along a path and the use of drop-down menus are all represented. Various clicking activities can be found such as clicking anywhere, click timing and double clicking.

Introductions to each activity are provided and the successful completion of a task is met with a range of pleasing rewards.
Many games options are configurable, such as the complexity of the task. Background graphics may be switched off to provide a high contrast visual appearance. Colours, sound effects and background music may be similarly customised. Setups will be remembered when restarting the program.

Price - R930

Catch Me

Excellent for practicing those essential mouse and whiteboard skills, this program has many options to tailor each of its eleven activities.

Improve hand eye coordination by targeting and dragging colours, shapes, letters and numbers, or try games with balloons, mazes or revealing a picture.

You can even add in your own digital images to provide extra motivation for your children!

Price - R930

On-Screen Keyboards

These utility programs have been designed to appear on the screen at the same time as the program being used to provide an additional or alternative input. For example, a selection of words on the screen can be used alongside a word processor. In addition to using the standard keyboard the user would be able to select words from this list to add to their writing. Words can be chosen using the mouse or, in some cases, selected using switches.

Ready made screen grids can be used or new displays can be created to meet individual needs. One drawback is that part of the screen is used, which can be confusing and reduce the space available for the program being used.
Some of these programs will allow pictures and graphics to be placed on the screen which can send associated words, phrases, pictures or commands to the program being used, for example, a picture of a house could send an address to a word processor.

These programs provide a valuable way of supporting people with SEN and allowing them to use standard software.

First Keys 2

Now completely revised, First Keys links the development of keyboard awareness to early literacy skills. A new edition of this popular program, suitable for young children or older pupils with learning difficulties.

Pupils can develop keyboard skills through picture matching, letter recognition, word building and spelling. Location of keys is taught by matching letters with pictures and speech.

The program comes with an extensive range of images which include improved versions of the graphics in First Keys 1 as well as photographs and additional images to illustrate new activity possibilities. It is easy to add your own images and photos and the program accepts a wide range of file formats.

The program is whiteboard friendly and provides a very useful tool to support the literacy strategy.

First Keys 2First Keys 2 has six types of activity:

Initial Letter: match a letter key to the initial letter of a picture prompt.

Match the text: type in the whole word or phrase to match the text.

Build the Text: text and picture appears, but on the first input the remaining text disappears.

Fill the Gaps: show the picture and text, but with gaps missing in the text. These gaps may be fixed letters, vowels or letter blends.

Look Cover Spell: see the picture and text. After a time (configurable) the whole word disappears and the student must type it in.

Spell from Picture: here the word is not seen and the student must type in the word, given only the picture.

Not suitable for Win 95.

1 User - R825

5 User - R1,810

10 User - R2,550

TypeQuick for Students

TypeQuick for StudentsDuring the last 15 years the typing specialist, TypeQuick, has built an international reputation with its highly successful keyboard training programs. Now they have released TypeQuick for Students, a new expert typing tutor hidden behind a multimedia adventure, designed especially for students.

TypeQuick for Students makes it easy to learn to type properly without conscious effort. Forty animated characters make the challenge fun.

Instead of adding a few short games to a boring set of typing drills, TypeQuick has created a 10 to 15 hour adventure, behind which is the structured course of 12 lessons. Students set off on an interactive adventure around Australia, visiting new places and meeting new characters as they master new typing skills.

All they have to do is type their name and the computer recognises where they are, what progress they have made, how fast they are typing and re-starts the adventure with the next lesson.

One User - R450

Family (4 Users on 1 PC) - R1,010

5 PC Pack - R5,030

10 PC Pack - R8,110

Additional User License - R800

Five Finger Typist

A structured typing program with a complete set of typing lessons for both the right and left hand.

It teaches the keyboarding technique for single-handed touch typing on the standard QWERTY keyboard. Users learn the home position and are then taken through a series of exercises which introduce new keys and revise keys already learned. Extremely easy, but flexible to use.

You can follow the suggested learning sequence, or move ahead or back. The application remembers the last lesson worked in a user's document file and opens at that lesson next time. Lessons are graded, starting with simple exercises to assist with the learning of the correct key strokes, an animated hand graphic on the screen shows the correct hand movement as keys are typed. Five Finger Typist has some word processing capabilities, so users can learn limited word processing skills while typing.

Typing lessons can be printed to show a pupil's progress.

Price - R1,100

UltraKey 5

Now UK English version!

UltraKeyAn outstanding typing tutor for primary to adult.

If you want a typing tutor that really works and helps you in the process, this is it! Designed by a team of typing experts and teachers, UltraKey is the long-standing favourite of American and Canadian educators. It is clear and straightforward, directly instructs students in the art of typing and provides them with regular and useful feedback. It lets teachers adjust the program to suit students' needs.

UltraKey 5 is a clear and straightforward typing tutor that directly instructs students in the art of typing, providing them with regular and useful feedback.

It lets teachers adjust the program to suit students' needs.

* Features 3D animated demonstrations - demonstrates every action with incredible realism, accelerating your typing effectiveness in minutes.
* Interactive virtual reality - uses interactive virtual reality to explore and learn safe posture and correct keyboarding technique.
* Adjusts to every user's needs - keeps an unlimited number of records, imports your own test material, offers fun activities, has variable font sizes and reads on-screen text aloud - ideal for special needs.
* Live classroom video - Visit a real keyboarding class. Observe how student typists reach average speeds of 80 words per minute.
* Listen first hand to professionals confirm the importance of keyboarding.
* Keyboarding Support Centre - Browse the built-in Keyboarding Support Centre for information about vital topics such as repetitive strain injuries (RSI's).
* New Typing Forum - test your skills with real timed typing tests right on screen. Use the extensive test bank or create your own test copy!

1 station school edition - R850

Home user copy - R650

Wizkeys

Wizkeys is the brand new, spellbindingly simple on-screen keyboard!

• Ideal for access difficulties.

• Great for whiteboards.

• Built-in dwell-click.

• Powerful word prediction.

• Drag to resize feature.

• All in one effective, resizable window.

• For Windows XP.

One User - R1,000

Network license - R4,300