Here we are on this beautiful spring day, ready to write our first review for the Homeschool Review Crew! I’m so excited to be back on the Crew for another year and ready to bring you many amazing products that I know you guys will enjoy just as we do! Our first vendor and review this year is from Bytes Of Learning. We were so excited and blessed to be able to review their Ultrakey Online Family Subscription.
Ultrakey Online is a wonderful designed program that teaches typing to students. There are various levels to the program which allow you to start from the beginning and work your way up, or will allow you to assess where you need to begin and build from there. So you can use the program for any skill level and increase those skills to become better at typing overall.
We were given access to Ultrakey Online Family Subscription which allows us to use the program with the entire family. You can use this program with up to 8 users but you can email Bytes of Learning if you do have a larger family and they also have wonderful suggestions for that. 8 was just the right number for our family of 7!
As a parent/teacher, I was able to set up the program really easily for my students. The directions are easy to understand. The program also talks you through each step in some areas which is nice as well, especially for the younger kids who are still learning reading.
At this time, the program uses the North American keyboard and spelling but there are plans to adapt this for the UK, Australia and New Zealand in the next year. As we live in the US, this was not a problem for us. We were able to use the program immediately and have enjoyed it.
When you begin setting up the program, you will log in the information, user name and password for each of your students. You can then choose Family settings which are basically the settings for how the program will run. You can allow your student to choose as they work through the program or you can set the program to one paragraph up to an entire text to type. You can allow access to the gaming zone or block it. The gaming zone is a reward program for working through the program and rewards the user for completing goals, encouraging them to continue with the program and discouraging boredom.
In Student Management itself, you can set individual goals for your student’s typing. You can customize these as you see fit or you can allow the program to develop goals for your student. You choose whatever is best for you.
In Student Settings, you can choose backgrounds that fit that student, as well as color choices and hand settings.
You can choose their spoken support, more or less. You can choose step-by-step learning, how much practice is allowed, and whether back spacing is or is not allowed during use of the program lessons and tests.
The program allows for reports of the students work, as well as reports for the family itself to compare. At the end of the program a certificate can also be printed to show that you have completed the work. This is a great addition for homeschool portfolios and for college entrance.
Through this program you will learn not only typing, but also finger position and posture. You will be able to develop these as you work through the lessons. Proper posture and finger position is an important part of any typing program.
The program is filled with videos for each lesson, too. This shows you how to type correctly, gives you pertinent information on use of the program and also encourages you to do your best while using the program and for years following. All Win-Win-Win for the program!
One of our favorite parts was the Game Zone that I mentioned above. These are just fun little extras that we were able to play around with to make typing fun. A nice break from the regular typing program as you worked through.
The program is able to be used by anyone. If your child is able to sit and knows the basics of letters and words, they can begin this program. If you are 67 and want to build your typing skills, you can use this program. So long as you have the skills to type, it’s something you can use to help build stronger skills with typing.
We truly enjoyed working with Ultrakey Online Family Subscription from Bytes of Learning. The 8-User Family Subscription that we were given costs $49.95. There are other smaller versions available as well for slightly less cost.
You can find Bytes of Learning online at:
Read More Reviews:
Disclaimer:
