Working at a school, we get our share of kids that think they’re being clever by swapping out the keys on keyboards. Sometimes they spell out dirty words, sometimes they just rearrange them. As a long time prankster, this is something so puerile that you’d get kicked out of the union (yes, we have a union). What would be really cool would be to swap all the A’s on to a keyboard, all the B’s onto another, and so on. So….
I obtained thirty-tree keyboards that the keys could be swapped out of. Unfortunately, the home keys – F and J – were ‘keyed’ differently (pun intended), so I couldn’t swap those out and keep the keyboards functional, and I wanted the keyboards usable. I made twenty-two alphabetic (A to Z without F or J), ten numeric (0 through 9), and my favorite: a keyboard of ESCs.
It’s possible for one person to make these in under a total of three hours. I suggest doing it in half-hour intervals with breaks in between. I completed them over two days with just over three hours of work.
Line up the keyboards, take the A keyboard. Swap out the A key on the B keyboard with the B key on the A keyboard. Then swap out the A key on the C keyboard with the C key on the A keyboard. Continue taking the A keyboard down the line swapping out keys and when you reach the end, your A keyboard is done. Take the B keyboard down the line and swap the keys to finish your B keyboard.
For April 1st of 2020, I was going to hit Ed’s lab, but school buildings across the country got shut down. Fine. I’ll wait another year. My patience is one of my strongest weapons.
April 1st of 2021 was during spring break. Fine. I’ll wait another year.
April 1st of 2022 was not originally during spring break, but a new revised calendar made it so.
April 1st of 2023 was a Saturday.
April 1st of 2024 was during spring break.
April 1st of 2025 was on a Tuesday! But Ed wasn’t teaching in his room that year so I had to skip it.
Yes! Yes! Yes! April 1st of 2026, I hit Ed’s lab and I can finally post this. Most appreciated the prank and I’m surprised at how many kids used the keyboards for class.