What the Tech: Remember cursive? Yeah, neither do we. But there’s an app for that.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - When was the last time you had to write something using a good old-fashioned pen and paper?

In the digital age, we’re living in now, most everyone takes notes using a keypad or computer keyboard. Cursive writing isn’t even taught in some schools despite the fact psychologists say it’s good for the brain and helps us remember things better.

Writing in cursive takes practice. Frankly though, who has pen and paper handy for that?

Besides, if you don’t remember how to write the capital S or Q, what good is a sheet of paper and the best pen you can find on your desk.

After trying to take notes at a conference a few weeks ago using a pencil and paper notebook, I thought I’d brush up on the 3rd-grade handwriting skills. Workbooks for elementary kids can be found on Amazon for a few dollars but I decided to look for an app instead.

I found Writey, an iPad-only app that you use with an Apple Pencil.

Writey looks like one of the workbooks from elementary school with each section showing the capital and lowercase letters of the entire alphabet. While it also has practice sheets for the Roman Alphabet and Print Writing, the Cursive Writing section is most helpful.

The app has sections for training how to keep the pen or pencil on paper as you write quickly, a section for ABCD, EFGH, IJKL, and on and on.

There’s also a section for writing cursive numbers though I don’t remember being taught that in elementary school (maybe I missed that day) but cursive numbers look like regular numbers to me.

Each letter is displayed in a faint pencil drawing and you are to write on top to trace what is on the digital paper. Each letter of the alphabet is displayed on lines to help keep you from writing all over a real sheet of paper when you’re finished.

There’s a section of “More Words” too where you can put all of that training to practice what you’ve learned or relearned.

There aren’t a lot of pages in the Writey app and there’s no way to purchase more (Writey is one of a very few apps that doesn’t require a subscription or add-ons).

Copyright 2021 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.