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For MS Windows versions 98, 2000 and XP

First Keys 2 to literacy from Widgit Software

Note: First Keys 2 has been superseded and replaced by First Keys 3 ANZ.

First Keys 2 to Literacy is the updated version of the very popular software package First Keys, created and designed in the UK for introducing elementary keyboarding skills. It can be used for learning keyboard awareness through early literacy and for practice with letters of the alphabet, using upper and/or lower case characters. In this new version, there are fifty (50) word lists. Each word in all of the lists is immediately available upon installation from a CD ROM, and has full picture support. The pictures are simple drawings or Rebus symbols (supplied by Widgit). You can also edit the word lists, create your own lists and add photos, other symbols or graphics to new text (including multiple words and simple sentences). There are 6 tasks and a very handy ‘talking book’ mode.

It has been, and still remains, the best program of this genre. It is easy to use, has many powerful features and can be used in a number of ways. It is competitively priced and is applicable to Early Years and students with special needs. The five (5), and particularly ten (10) user licences are extremely attractive.

School staff and parents at home can nominate the required word list and accommodate the child or group of students with onscreen keyboards, in QWERTY or alphabetical layout, with corresponding letter names or letter sounds voiced. The option for having text voiced in ‘letter sound’ is frequently requested by teachers and speech pathologists. In the past, First Keys was my initial suggestion. First Keys 2 performs so much better and has been designed to compliment Windows 2000/XP. It has a fresh look and feel with excellent navigation features and is flexible and amendable to a number of audiences.

Students can access the software, with mouse; touch window (using the onscreen keyboard displayed at the bottom of the screen in each activity) or external devices such as IntelliKeys or BigKeys (see diagram). Essentially, the primary aim of the software is to properly locate letters and learn to use the standard keyboard. You can choose to use an onscreen keyboard, with letters and/or space bar displayed, or no keyboard displayed. The font, style and size can be selected for the task and the onscreen keyboard.

The pictures and voices used are clear and appropriate for students in early primary classrooms. The software could be used with older students by replacing the pictures with photographs or more age appropriate graphics. The SAPI voices are standard on MS Windows computers. LOTE teachers will also enjoy using the software, (if the computer has the required modern language SAPI file). Match the voice with a corresponding font and the software becomes a very useful and practical LOTE tool. This gives added value and becomes applicable to middle year’s classes.

Activities include:

• Listen and Read
  See the text in the word list with its graphic, with text voiced. Move forward, back and to home.
• Initial letter-matching
  Match the initial letter (the letter, in upper or lower case, is displayed with or without a picture)
• Matching the text
  Build the text letter by letter, with prompt (the letters are coloured in turn, to assist the student)
• Building text from memory
  Match target text letter by letter (the whole text is shown, then removed)
• Filling the gaps
  A target picture and clozed text is displayed. The user must locate the missing letter(s).
• Look Cover Spell
  A spelling activity, using the look, cover, type method. Ideal for introducing new words, practising words or for creating spelling exercises specific to the needs of users.
• Spell From picture
  Given a target picture, the user must spell out the text without clues.

Any system font can be used, and displayed up to 72 point in size (i.e. one inch high). This is usually adequate for young children and ideal for students who are vision impaired. The onscreen keyboard is well designed and is displayed in a QWERTY or alphabetical layout, with numbers and space bar if needed. Each key is clearly labelled with each key ‘shadowed’ in a 3D effect. The display is uncluttered and unambiguous. Figure ground is so important with software programs. The intent is to provide keyboarding activities with literacy outcomes, without too many distractions and busy graphics and sounds. The software is beguiling as it is sophisticated in design, yet elegant and simple in its delivery, appearance and navigation. To exit a task, the user moves the mouse to the top left of the screen. A drop down menu provides an Exit option. The current activity is then shown with an onscreen toolbar, including Open, New, Editor, Options and Report options.

Main Menu page

Open: A large dialogue window opens. Before starting an activity, you choose one of the fifty available word lists. Texts include alphabet (1 to 3); alphabet keys; colour names; digraph A,E,O,W; confusables c and k; four letters 1-3; hard words 1 and 2; preposition pictures, preposition sentences, past tense 1 and 2; short a, e,i,o and u; silent letters; th and gh; silent “e”; typing patterns 3 or 4 letters and various other lists. You can make your own lists or edit any one of these predetermined lists.

The task is selected within this option (or you can select multiple tasks). The text to be practiced is displayed in another pane in this window.

New: In this window, you create new text. You can edit and add text to an existing word list or create a new list. You can add new words at the end of the list, insert words within the list or delete words from the list.

The process is quite straightforward. You type in the text. You can click on Instant and the software will locate a corresponding picture from the Widgit Colour, Widgit Picture or Widgit Symbol libraries. You can activate the three libraries, or choose only one. You can also browse your PC and add other symbol or picture libraries. If you have Writing With Symbols 2000 on your computer, you can choose the colour or black and white PCS library. With older students, they can take photos of words and concepts and create a library, then append it to the program. At any stage, if you change your mind about a word you have added to a list, you can delete it, or delete an entire list. It is totally flexible, the addition of lists is intuitive and relatively easy to accomplish if you understand file handling and know where you have stored your graphic files.

To assist with the creation and editing of your word lists, Widgit have added a spelling option to the program. The program has a British dictionary as standard. You can add other dictionaries if you have them. Custom dictionaries supplied include USER.adu, CUSTOM.dic, custom.dic and overlap.dic. This additional spell-checking feature is an excellent option, as it will assist teachers and students making their own custom spelling and keyboard practice lists.

Editor: This window provides the facilities for editing the current text list. It has the same tools as New and works in the same fashion. Both window dialogue boxes provide the usual editing functions of Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Select all and Clear all. Besides the Instant Picture option, you can choose the Picture Browser, go to a Picture Library or clear a picture. You can perform a spell check or set up spelling options (including check spelling as you type, correct spelling errors as you type, ignore upper case characters and prompt on repeated word).

Options: This dialogue window has five (5) tabs. In the first tab, Task, you select the task(s). You can set a time delay for the Look, Cover Spell activity (from 1 to hundreds of seconds). The Show end of task report can be selected, as can sound effects. A prompt after 1 or 5 mistakes can be turned on or off, or set to an automatic prompt.

View options include the font, its size and whether it is Bold. An automatic Font option sizes both the task font and onscreen keyboard font to be the same. The keyboard and picture can be revealed or hidden. Text can be aligned to the left or centred. The task sort method includes random order, alphabetical order or sequential order.

Gaps options include Use Custom Gaps where the special gaps lists that may have been saved with the text lists are employed. Use Global Gap List overrides any special gaps selections. It uses one of the default gaps lists, such as vowels, shown in the list. The gaps appear in the cloze type activities. Consonant blends can be selected e.g. sh, tt, ch or ck.

The Keyboard options include QWERTY or alphabetical layout, with numbers and/or space bar included with the letters A-Z. The onscreen keyboard letters can be displayed in upper or lower case with a keyboard ‘click’ sound instead of speech, if the voice is turned off.

In KeyPix, you select and nominate the first starting letter of characters A-Z. Each letter has an image as a default or you can change them to any other symbol (e.g. PCS) or picture/drawing or even photograph. After installing two extra picture libraries (from the recently released Australian version of Writing with Symbols 2000) I had forty-nine (49) choices of instant picture for the letter A, and 22 for the letter E.

Speech options include settings where the voice, pitch and speed can be selected. Any SAPI voice file on your computer can be chosen (as well as modern languages such as Spanish or French if you have them installed).

The Text Speech options includes:

Keyboard Speech: Choose either key letter name or key letter sound.
There is also a pronunciation editor feature with a friendly intuitive wizard. These options cover every conceivable need and combined with the rich visual information, provide teachers with numerous combinations of settings to accommodate all users.

Report: The diagnostic aspect rounds off the package with a task report option. It provides valuable information with regard to the user, the task attempted, the keyboard layout used, with number of texts correct and incorrect. This report can be displayed and shown to the student at the end of a task , or at any time during. It can also be printed to a hard copy.

The 24-page user manual is illustrated with useful graphics and screen shots. As the program is so user friendly and well designed, it really acts as a way of introducing the various features. There are additional educational ideas listed, including

• Short texts are all reinforcing short vowel sounds
  
• Typing texts gives practice in repetitive typing actions
  
• Prepositions text helps in learning the main prepositions
  
• Past tense 1 and 2 offer present tense verbs with irregular past tense.

First Keys 2 has progressed since the floppy disk version of First Keys. Widgit has created an extremely valuable program, one that should be a must-have in any early years classroom, and a very handy tool for LOTE and ideal for teachers in special settings and integrated classrooms. It looks great, is flexible and provides great value. Speech pathologists can use it especially for practicing letter sounds and names.

The talking book feature is a bonus and the preposition sentences assist students who need help with concepts such as under, by, in front of, behind etc. First Keys 2 is another excellent software package, from a company devoted to assisting students, in this instance, in developing and practising their literacy and keyboarding skills.