After completing the Level 1 challenge, your students will unlock the Friends List. By adding friends to the Friends List, they can view one another’s Avatars and challenge each other to Head2Head matches. Once Qmail is unlocked, they can send messages to each other as well.

By default, your students can earn the ability to communicate with anyone in your school. However, you can change the Friends Range for your class. Setting the range to “class” allows your students to communicate only with classmates. Selecting “District” allows communication between schools. “Everyone” allows communication with the QwertyTown community at large.

Your avatar is the character that represents you in QwertyTown. The Friends on your Friends List can see your avatar, and you can see theirs. Students can customize and personalize their avatars with an ever-growing list of items, from noses and hair to clothing and accessories.

At QwertyTown, we take online safety very seriously. That’s why we give teachers and adminstrators the power to oversee and guide their students’ experiences in QwertyTown. Teachers can view full transcripts of their students’ Qmail messages. They can add or remove individual students’ access to Qmail and the Friends List. Teachers can even govern who their students add to their Friends Lists. We provide teachers with the tools to teach their students how to communicate online safely and respectfully.

Yes! Schools may sign up for a free 30-day trial to try out QwertyTown. With your 30-day trial, you will get one free teacher account and thirty student accounts.

Subscribers purchase their desired number of user accounts for one year. We offer discounts for large accounts. Take a look at our Pricing page for details.

Head over to our Contact page and get in touch with our Sales team to find out how to purchase a subscription for your school or school district.

Each lesson is scaffolded. There are three stages to a lesson: Demo, Guided Practice, and Independent. In the Demo stage, students are shown how to reach for the new keys. Then students try each new key themselves.

In the Guided Practice stage of the lesson, students type patterns with the new keys. They are given help when they press incorrect keys.

In the Independent stage, students are assessed on their Speed (WPM) and Accuracy. Students type patterns with new and previously learned keys mixed together. Students try to earn a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Medal.

In the Time Trial, students are assessed on their Speed (WPM) and Accuracy. Students type all keys they’ve learned thus far. These keys are typed in the context of real words. In later levels, students type whole sentences and paragraphs. Students try to earn a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Medal.

Words Per Minute (WPM) is the standard measurement of keyboarding speed. For this formula, a “word” is five characters. “Dave’s pie” is considered two “words” because there are a total of ten characters (spacebar and apostrophe each count as one character). WPM represents the number of five-character “words” a person types per minute.

No. All you need is a web browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Internet Explorer…) and an Internet connection.

Windows:

Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge

Mac:

Chrome, Firefox, Safari

*for best performance, update your browsers.

No.

Yes! QwertyTown is built using HTML5 and JS. As such, it will work in any modern web browser. Whether you’re using Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or another browser, be sure to update it to the latest version to ensure compatibility.

In QwertyTown, users will learn all 26 letters of the alphabet, the digits 0-9, and the following punctuation, symbols, and other keys:

Punctuation: period, comma, question mark, exclamation point, hyphen, colon, semicolon, apostrophe, quotation marks, parentheses

Symbols: forward slash, underscore, asterisk, ampersand, percent, dollar sign, number sign (pound), at

Other keys: tab, spacebar, enter (return), delete (backspace), Left and Right shift

Qmail allows a student to send messages to people on his or her Friends List. Students unlock the ability to send Qmail messages after completing the Level 2 Challenge. Many teachers enjoy using Qmail for class communication during class or at home. Users are notified of new Qmail messages in their Friends List. Teachers have the ability to monitor all Qmail messages sent and received by their students. They may also add or remove their students’ ability to use Qmail at any time.

Based on their performance during the Independent stage of Lessons or on Level Challenges, students may earn Medals. Medals are awarded when students demonstrate Speed (WPM) and Accuracy. The benchmarks for the Medals are as follows:

Bronze- 20wpm, 92% Accuracy

Silver- 30wpm, 95% Accuracy

Gold- 40wpm, 95% Accuracy

When students earn a medal at the conclusion of a lesson, they are awarded QwertyCoins. QwertyCoins can be used in the Avatar Store to purchase new Avatar Items. This provides great motivation for students to repeat lessons and try to earn Silver and Gold Medals. QwertyCoins are awarded as follows:

Bronze: 100

Silver: 250

Gold: 500