Keyboarding Without Tears

This app works fine as a developmentally appropriate typing tutor, but must be set up by teacher or therapist in order to have full access and functionality. It is intended to support lessons provided by teacher or therapist. Edit: after the most recent iPad software update it has begun to freeze between lessons. One of my students found that pressing the 'x' at top right corner resets the session and pressing arrow on right side again progresses to the next session. Can be frustrating, but progress does continue.

I originally purchased this program and used it successfully on a computer. Our schools distribute iPads, so we purchased several licenses for students to use Logitech keyboards plugged into their iPad. This app does not work with a keyboard! Kind of interesting because it is called keyboarding without tears! When I called about this they kept telling me they're working on the glitches. When I called recently, they said they have stated on their website that this app is not recommended to use with a separate keyboard with the iPad. They did however refund the money, so that is good! So if you are buying this to use with an iPad, it would be used with the touchscreen. I don't know many people that type that way. If you use the touchscreen the better option would be using word prediction. We are using the typing club or other apps that work with the keyboard.

This game is 💩. There is this thing that says solve or something and I don’t know what to do. So I restarted the whole level and I found you out you had to tap on it. THEY NEVER TOLD ME TO TAP ON IT! When you enter, the game suddenly crashes and you get a black screen. It deletes all of you progress without warning. If you are using keyboard you sometimes have to press the shift button on screen and then press the key on your keyboard while holding. The screen never moves down so you have to press al the buttons on the keyboard until you hit the right one. And then you have to do it again for the next letter! This game is so bad it makes me want to destroy my device. It is a big pile of trash and never ever ever ever play this game. It will brake you and enrage you. KeyboardingWithoutTears more like KeyboardingWithTears. Please improve this game!!!!!!!!!!

I got the app to work on my iPad. Had to set the classroom up on Live Insights first, following the HWT instructions on my computer. Now, when I log in on the iPad, I see my classroom name and then I can select a student. Still some bugs with the program. Puzzle pieces don't always work well. My 5 year old got frustrated and won't play again. I had to finish up the puzzles just so he can move on to the next phase. I hope he shows an interest again.

Purchased app to teach my 8-yr-old how to type. Open app and app asks for PIN number. Hmmmm. Go to Live Insights website. Create an account. Get pin. Enter in a bunch of info and set up my child as a student. Go back to app. Find and click on my child's name. Cool, now we are getting somewhere . . . nope. Now app redirects me back to website, where I apparently must purchase one or more licenses before app will function. Try calling Live Insights for help. No one answers. Just get a voicemail box, which I can't leave a message on because it is full. Now I give up. What a total waste of time. Thanks Apple App Store for failing to mention anything about this in the app description.

You would think if it’s going to cost money to buy a license that they’d invest some funds in the app so it doesn’t crash or within the app it will pick up your keyboard/iPad set up but nope. My kid went happily along in the curriculum then got STUCK because while the keyboard was connected to the iPad and could be used to sign into the app, within the test it wouldn’t pick up the keyboard, then if I tried to type just using the iPad keyboard it would take me to the end of the app, then crash and I’d have to go back to the beginning again. Their paper-based curriculum worked well for my kid, but this app is trash. Don’t waste your money.

Why does this exist. It makes me less exited to type then I would be if I used a much more fun and engaging program. It is, in a way, making my skills worse because I want to pay no attention to what I was attempted to be taught. I had a much worse tech teacher before the one I have currently and I learned more from the bad one then the good one because the good one uses this program! The worst part is, because of Covid, I have to do this for an hour a day and I am literally getting nothing out of this and it is sucking an hour out of my day just so I can sit at a computer and be bored. KWT, you really need to make this more fun.

My kid asked me if whoever made this did it over lunch. It has a LOT of bugs. I have used the desktop version and it has major bug problems. The app seems no better. Sometimes you can't login, sometimes it will not let your student "set" the puzzle or other pieces where they belong and the only way out is to back out and start again. And now, it inexplicably skips up to 3/4th of the levels making for choppy progression, and no way to access the skipped levels. Not to mention, I paid for those levels. Not worth the money.

Please make it so that when people try to do it they don’t have to put in a pin because I don’t mine and my teacher said she doesn’t know it either. So please change that I’m begging

I am a pediatric Occupational Therapist with 24 years experience this App is a series of age appropriate exercises that are student friendly and highly motivating!!!! Thanks Again HWT's you remain a therapists/teachers/parents and most importantly a students best mentor for progressive developmental learning!

This app doesn't look like it's available to the general public. I downloaded it and it asks me for a PIN to log in. When I try to click on "What's my PIN" and asks me for my email. Once I type my email (thinking I will be able to register then) it says "Invalid email". Description should specify this is not for general public and only available for those with pre-established PINs.

Normally, I love this app but this year it is constantly crashing or just doesn’t load at all. I have been using HWT and KWT for four years and this year the app and the computer program never work. It would be nice if you actually fixed these problems, both online and in the app. This has been very frustrating. Please fix the problem!

We are a couple of weeks into the program and haven’t really seen much keyboarding at all and the App seldom works properly frequently freezing causing students to have to force close the App and reopen it...usually multiple times in one session. Seems a more appropriate name would be Tears without Keyboarding.

Really excited about this app but it won't open for me. I enter in my email in step one, and by step two, the app freezes. Very discouraging since I paid for the Handwriting AND Keyboarding and the keyboarding app was slated to release end of August. It's postponement to release sometime in September and it's inability to work properly is a tad frustrating.

I have an external keyboard. It is turned on and I am using it to compose this review. The KWT app does not recognize that I have an external keyboard. You would think that this feature would be a priority for an app that teaches typing... the routine to check if there is a bluetooth keyboard attached. Just to be sure, I tried three external keyboards.

We like the program. It works well on the computer but the app is buggy. After finishing a lesson, the app screen stays blank and does not advance to the next slide. Please fix!!!!!

I called tech support, but did not receive an answer yet as to why the screen will not rotate on our 1st generation iPads. We are trying to use with external keyboards, and cannot get the screen to flip.

The space bar never works EVER I can type good to

Supposed to use this for my first graders class but can’t get it to work. Totally silent tutorial and lessons despite multiple attempts to fix and reinstall.

The iPad version of this app cannot find a bluetooth-connected external keyboard. iI know the keyboard works because I'm typing this review with it! Please fix, the app is fairly useless without this capability.

This app constantly crashes and is ineffective as a teaching tool. I would not recommend to any educator.

Can't log in. App freezes. I have tried many times and never get past the log in page. Bummer.

They don't tell you that you have to take the course before you can use ! Not waste your time

This was the worst typing app ever. It doesn’t work with a keyboard and all of the instructive videos don’t work. DO NOT get if you want to actually learn typing!!!1

I put in my Email address and it didn't accept it. Purchase if you want the worst app in the history of apps.

This so stupid and so many glitches so please take this off the App Store. The is a piece of crap

Cannot get to work

Same experience. Can’t figure out how to get a PIN. App does not work/ open

Looks great, you get it, you need PIN, not free, WHY does Apple let this go on? It should say Not Free, and let me buy it instead going on a wild goose chase. Bah humbug.

I wish i could rate it 0

Without a keyboard it is pure💩 get a keyboard or don’t use it I would rate it a 0 star

Freezes up....not working:(

Horrible!

I am a big fan of the HWT curriculum, I have used their products for a long time, but this keyboarding curriculum is an embarrassment and a huge waste of money. First, I bought the license for the first grade keyboarding program. When my son and I sat down to start it, it forced us to do 6 weeks of preschool and Kindergarten level review, which consists of things like dragging and dropping puzzle pieces. That is way below grade level, has nothing to do with keyboarding, and even that portion of the app is not well done. I finally gave up and just completed it myself and it was frustrating even as an adult because the pieces don't "click" into place easily and it's very boring, repetitive, and takes forever. There is an option in the teacher set up portion to skip the 6 weeks of review, so I selected that, closed the app, and restarted. It still would not allow us to skip it, even after doing this about 10 times. I finally called tech support, which said that while yes, it allows you to skip the 6 weeks of review, in some of the levels there is still mandatory review that is not skippable. Okay, that makes no sense, but okay. I gave up and completed one of the review lessons on my own just to get through it since my son was getting frustrated. At the end of the lesson it showed me my progress chart and guess what? I had 5 more weeks of review to go! So apparently the skipping option just randomly doesn't work. The next day I bought the license for the second grade keyboarding program because my son had his heart set on doing the keyboarding and I figured if there is 6 weeks of mandatory review then at least it would be at first grade level instead of preschool/Kindergarten. Wrong. There are still these drag and drop puzzle pieces games, albeit fewer of them. When you start the app you select whether you are using an iPad with a separate keyboard or an iPad by itself. Despite restarting the app numerous times (again) it did not recognize our keyboard. The keyboard works fine, I'm using it right now to type the review. The app is just in shambles, totally unusable, and I'm shocked they even released something that plain does not work. I have wasted my money on this and will deleting it and buying some other keyboarding program from the App Store, and will not be using any more of their products.

Do NOT use this app or service if you plan to use an iPad to teach keyboarding. It does not teach proper or appropriate keyboarding technique due to its constant affliction with bugs poor app performance. This app has produced nothing but tears when trying to teach keyboarding to children. As someone that works in IT for a school that uses this app for 100+ students please heed my warning. We've tested many different methods using several models of lighting-attached keyboards, bluetooth keyboards, and the Keyboarding Without Tears (KWT) own proprietary keyboard inside the app and have run into constant issues with KWT recognizing keystrokes. What is worse, bringing this issue to KWT developer's attention, their Customer Care Representative's official response is that "there are too many variables to garuntee[sic]" external keyboards working with KWT, with the suggestion to switch to a "chromebook, laptop, or desktop." This approach doesn't work for us since our school uses only iPads for coursework. The representative goes on to suggest that we use "only the internal keyboard on the Safari or Chrome browser [which] should make the program function better." However, our testing shows that using the website version of KWT's service isn't any better. Even if it did, then what exactly is the point of having a KWT iOS app? This app alleges to teach appropriate keyboarding to children, but the children using this app/service are learning anything but proper keyboarding technique since the app doesn't recognize when the correct keys are pressed either on a physical keyboard or the app's own keyboard. We've run into an issue where in order for a student to type a capital F in their KWT lesson, even though where were properly holding the "Shift" key and pressing the "F" key at the same time, the app continued to recognize the action as a typo. Once again I stress: this was using KWT's own onscreen keyboard inside the app. We found that the student needed to use BOTH the KWT onscreen keyboard to hold the "Shift" key, then press the "F" key on their physical keyboard attached via lightning cable. How is that any way to teach proper keyboarding technique? Not to mention, KWT's proprietary keyboard doesn't even operate in the same manner as the default iOS keyboard, so even if this app were to teach our children how to type, they would need to relearn how to use the iOS keyboard. The children in our school are becoming frustrated and learning more how to work AROUND the errors riddled in this poorly implemented app and service, resulting in hunting-pecking and other behavior discouraged in a competent keyboarding class (or app). KWT please fix your atrocious app to at least use the default, built-in iOS keyboard that every single iOS device uses instead of your pathetic excuse for an onscreen keyboard. I will do nothing but continue to steer teachers, students, parents, and other IT personnel in education away from your service.

Do NOT get this game

Bad

Soooooooooooobad

Do not get it it is poop and terrible

Not only do Bluetooth keyboards not work, the on screen keyboard doesn’t work when you have to press 2 keys at once. The iPad must only support 1 point on the touch screen. Can’t believe Bluetooth keyboards aren’t supported. Also requiring a 6 character educator code then classroom then student then 3 character student passcode to login is unreasonable! Love the program once you can get to it, but....