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November 15, 2002
Top 10 Smart Technologies for Schools (cont'd)
1. Voice to Text
A language learner pronounces a word and immediately sees it in text on a computer screen. A principal dictates to-do activities while driving to school and arrives with a list on his handheld. VTT offers a whole new level of support for literacy.
By Jason Ohler
The next step in the evolution of writing technology is just as magical as the shift from typewriter to word processor: voice to text. Simply put, voice-to-text technology allows you to speak into a microphone and watch your words appear on your computer screen as a word processing file. Current options allow you to talk to your computer as well as to handheld recorders, which then download to your computer.
While VTT has made great strides in recent years, there are still some kinks that need working out before it's entirely feasible for classrooms. For starters, the software needs to be trained to understand your voice-which can take anywhere from four to eight hours-and you will need to teach it words that it doesn't know. As of this writing, mainstream packages like Dragon NaturallySpeaking and ViaVoice have achieved about 90 percent to 95 percent accuracy. Rumors persist that VTT is approaching nearly 100 percent accuracy, but we haven't seen it yet. In the near future, it will be as commonplace to include VTT in a computer purchase as it is to include a DVD/CD-ROM drive today. Microsoft already has plans to include VTT in its much-awaited Tablet PC.
Beyond the training time required, there are additional justifiable concerns about VTT. Whereas the word processor has greatly improved upon the typewriter, VTT offers a more dramatic change-primarily because writing and speaking are two very different ways of communicating. It is much easier to say words you may later regret than it is to type them. The slowness of the medium of pen and paper or typing allows for reflection time as one composes. If word processing reduced this reflection time, VTT obliterates it. Any deep processing needs to come later. Also, we'll need to give new consideration to the fact that the tone of voice and body language we use to imbue speech with meaning does not translate when spoken words are converted to words on a screen. Another major stumbling block for VTT in classroom use will be the noise factor: how do twenty-five kids talk simultaneously without producing chaos?
But VTT still holds great promise for teaching and learning. This technology can be a tremendous help to students with disabilities who may not possess the motor skills for handwriting or typing. And those with more oral/aural learning styles can benefit greatly from programs such as Soliloquy's Reading Assistant, which incorporates VTT to allow early reading students to match a phonetic concept with the printed word. English Language Learners as well as foreign language learners can also boost fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary, and other skills through software that integrates VTT.
VTT's most immediate use in mainstream education will probably be as the preferred method for "quick writes," in which students sketch out an idea for a paper or report before doing serious editing with a word processor. It will also likely be adopted to facilitate activities in which speech is conventionally converted to text, like brainstorming or taking field notes and minutes of meetings. It offers potential efficiency for use with many things that are now primarily written, including tests, assessment, notes to parents, and homework. As long as VTT is linked to improving either the quality of writing or the ability to produce written words, it will have a place in education.
And as with all new technologies, VTT will first do the work of its predecessors and then create entirely new kinds of activities we can't imagine yet-artistically, educationally, and commercially.
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