Flip Keyboard: A new option for Emergent Writers

5 Comments

I am very excited to announce the launch of Flip Keyboard – a new writing option for emergent writers. Flip keyboard provides access to the alphabet in groups of letters (similar to a non-electronic flip chart), with a range of settings you can use to customise for each writer’s needs.

You can access Flip Keyboard at https://flipkeyboard.com/.

Flip Keyboard can be used as a webpage in a browser. However, if you are using it on an iPad you can also make it run in app mode. In app mode, Flip Keyboard has a button on the home screen and will function more like an app than a web page. You’ll find the details of how to do this under the instructions page on the Flip Keyboard site.

Flip Keyboard is easy to use to write – just select a letter and it appears in the writing window. You can also add spaces and scroll through the alphabet. You can insert a picture to write about, and when you’ve finished writing you can save both the picture and writing as a JPG file.

Flip keyboard has a large number of Settings that can be used to customise the app for each user – including number of letters, letter colour, size of font in the writing window, and many more!

I hope you enjoy using it – and if you have any suggestions for improvements I’d love to hear about them!

Happy writing!!

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Comments (5)

  1. Karina Hamilton

    Reply

    I’ve just tried playing with this. Are you considering putting a delete button on this also so when someone accidentally activates a letter you can take it back one by one not just clearing the whole lot? Cheers K

    • Jane

      Reply

      HI Karina, the lack of the delete key is deliberate. Since this is for emergent writers, they aren’t usually spelling with letters yet – so they usually wouldn’t use a delete key – which is why there isn’t one on the non-electronic flip charts either. If I get a lot of people asking for it, I could add a delete key that can be toggled on and off in settings. But since I want this to be an emergent writing tool I’ll see what the general feedback is. Jane

      • Jane

        Reply

        Hi Karina, a second response after I had another message about this. I’ve added the delete key now. It’s off by default – but if you need it – you can toggle it on in settings. Jane

  2. Rui Fernandes

    Reply

    I would add the possibility of speaking the words or phrases. If a kid is learning to write his name, it would be great to hear it (as a reward/feedback and confirmation) .
    It is a great tool. Thank you, Jane.

    • Jane

      Reply

      Hi Rui, I deliberately didn’t add the option of speaking the writing space because emergent writers are usually scribbling and some of them don’t like hearing their writing pronounced as strings of letters when they’re already translate it for us – or when we’ve attributed meaning. So I’m going to leave speech off in the writing space for the foreseeable future. If you really want to do this with a student’s name that has been spelt correctly, then I’d use the build in accessibility feature in most operating systems where you can highlight some text and have it read out loud. Most operating systems have a “select-to-speak” or similar option under accessibility that would do this for you. Glad you like it as a tool! Jane

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