How To Prevent Tech Injuries

Technology has moved us forward in many ways, but it can also have us curled up in pain if we’re not careful. Here are four common tech-related injuries that are as easy to get as they are to prevent (thank goodness).

Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS)

If you use a computer for more than two hours a day, you could be at risk for computer vision syndrome, a condition characterized by eye strain, headaches, blurred vision, and dry eyes. While the condition is temporary, it can be frustrating, especially for people who must focus on computer screens for a large part of their days (and this adds up to about 70% of us, according to the American Optometric Association).

If you suffer from CVS, add frequent breaks to your daily routine, adjust the distance between your computer and your eyes, and keep your doctor apprised of any symptoms that don’t go away.

Tinnitus

Avid cellphone users--those who actually use their phones as phones--may be at a higher risk of developing tinnitus, a consistent ringing in the ear. While the connection is up for debate, some studies found that people who talk on cellphones for more than four hours a day were at an increased risk of developing tinnitus, which is difficult to treat.

Tech Neck

Tech neck is the catchy name for a condition that refers to degenerative neck changes due to poor posture, namely the shape we take while we are pouring over our smart phones and laptops. Maintaining this posture for long periods of time can lead to disc injury, muscle strain, nerve impingement, and ongoing related pain over the shoulders, down the back, and along the length of both arms.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is one of the reasons why repetitive motion injuries rank ninth for most common work-related injuries. The more time you spend hunched over your keyboard, the more likely you are to irritate the median nerve in your wrist, causing numbness, tingling, weakness, and pain in your fingers and hand.

Preventing carpal tunnel, and all of these tech-related injuries, is as easy as maintaining good posture at the keyboard, elevating your wrists while typing to avoid nerve compression, and taking frequent breaks to stretch, focus, and move your body in a variety of ways. Make it a habit to remind yourself and your students to sit up straight, pull shoulders back and down, and place both feet flat on the floor.

Arey Jones is here to make educational technology a comfortable experience for all, which is why we’ve been an industry leader for more than 30 years. Learn more about Arey Jones.

How Improving Typing Skills Can Improve Overall Communication

As someone who writes blogs as part of her job, I feel my words-per-minute more than most. I can pinpoint my early typing skills to particular summer I spent at a cousin’s house, stumbling inside out of the heat and falling into playing Stickybear Typing on their Apple II. This was during the era between electric typewriters and computer labs; computers were word processors and toys, not the educational, creative, data-collecting and professional powerhouses they are today.

Learning to type became just as crucial as learning to swim that summer, and it was a turning point in my confidence level and the way I put my ideas to work. I didn’t know it at the time because it was a game and I enjoyed it, but that summer spent typing was a game changer in my school and professional life.

Nowadays, kids learn their letters by the shape, sound, and where they are located on the QWERTY keyboard. How well they learn them, and how fast they can type them, could very well determine how well they do in school, how well they interact with others, and how well they communicate with the world at large.

Keyboarding gets their motor running.

And by this we mean motor skills. Keyboarding requires an artful application of fine and gross motor skills—locate keys by touch, applying just the right pressure when striking, and moving on to the next. It’s a common action those of us can do it take for granted; we simply think and the words seem to appear effortlessly on the page. The truth is, typing is a much more physical exertion, and one that requires constant practice, like playing an instrument or a sport, to maximize efficiency, accuracy, and confidence.

Keyboarding gets juices flowing.

This is where making keyboarding a part of early and ongoing curriculum just makes sense. Just like providing technology in the classroom on a one-to-one or shared basis is important to closing the digital divide for all kids, teaching keyboarding removes yet another barrier between inspiration and innovation. The faster kids can translate thoughts into sentences, sentences to words, words to letters, and letters into keys, the easier it becomes for them to use technology to express themselves, find what they are looking for, create what they mean to, and present what they intended. 

Keyboarding makes coding possible.

While coding will likely be a part of daily existence for our future workforce, it is simply another language our kids must learn to type. Basic computer skills start with typing, even in a touch screen environment. While Chromebooks and Windows10 laptops are becoming more and more hands-on with stylus pens and on-screen interactive elements, those advancements just give us more ways to use our hands to navigate the technological landscape.

Keyboarding apps and software abound, thank goodness, and the best ones, like Typing Instructor and UltraKey, teach children the correct finger-to-key movement as well as variety, drills, and tips on posture and how to improve accuracy speed. There are also typing programs geared for the younger set—Mickey’s Typing Adventure and Garfield’s Typing Pal, to name two good ones—that offer simple, fun, personalized games for the best results.

In the end, keyboarding makes students more proficient in educational technologies and the opportunities that come with them. The more exposure children get to a keyboard and what they can do with it, the faster and better they can learn.