Marcia,
Very good points. Dragon Naturally Speaking can be used for those other that students with disabilities.
Renee Shaffer
It is odd, but I had a graduate professor mention “Dragons Can Speak,†but I believe he must have meant “Dragon Naturally Speaking.†He had found this helpful for a number of his students, and he did not mention this in connection with disabilities. I believe he may have used it himself. It is possible that people in general, not necessarily those qualified as ADA, would like help with writing. Often when students return to college to look at new careers, they may not have been doing much writing. Often people may prefer speaking to writing, so Dragons Speaking Naturally might be a viable tool. This particular professor has worked with a number of students who were the first in their extended families to go to college.
From my experience, there can be quite a bit of writing inn many online courses. Writing across the curriculum is an approach I have used in high school and college classes, and have reviewed in graduate classes. I think it can seem intimidating to do something such as writing if one has not done it for a while. I think it is often expected that people will be able to write, but it can take practice to get reaclimated to the process.
Letitia,
yes, this seems to have taken the place of the medical transcribers from the olden days.
Renee Shaffer
Dragon Naturally Speak is a speech recognition device used by those with or without disabilities. I became familiar with this software working in a physician practice. All of the physicians used this device for dictating their medical records. This was a great time saver for the physicians. In addition, this kept them on track with documenting and seeing patients at the same time.
This software is good but I find that students with a severe impediment or strong accent (as those I have here in south Mississippi and Alabama) have difficulty with certain words and getting the computer to fully recognize the words which they mean to use not just the ones which the computer thinks it hears.
Sounds silly, but we have had some issues... but a bit of coaching with diction and most of the times it sorts itself out.
Dragon naturally speaking is great. It has become a cost-effective accessibility tool for all types of students. Speech recognition tools are a great way for writing and learning for students who were previously unable to write or submit written assignments due to problems with learning disabilities.
I believe this should be assessable to all students.
Charlene,
Dragon is seen as an universal design tool which means that it is useful for all people! It is a great tool.
Renee Shaffer
Dragon Naturally Speaking is considered one of the major software tools for speech recognition. I have seen the late night commercials; however I did not associate it with assistive tools for those in need of ADA accommodations. At the time I thought I could really use it as a tool to cut my grading time and make it more precise. I would be able to review the students’ assignment and determine their grade faster. Now, I see it is an awesome tool that students can use to type their assignment and improve their grades.
I have Dragon Speaking Naturally, although, I must confess that I haven't used it a whole lot. I originally bought it to help with the grading process...typing all the comments in the grading comment area. Then we went more rubric based, so I found using the software more cumbersome. At this point, I just need to play around with it some more and see how it might be help me in my work. It certainly gave me a new perspective and appreciation for people who perhaps can't type well, or at all, and need to use this type of software. :-)
Dragon Naturally Speaking. Its great for those that preferred dictating rather than writing or who want to avoid carpal tunnel issues with too much writing.
Trista
That is an interesting idea! In my class we record our lectures so the students that can't make the live chats can at least get the lecture. Having a running transcript is a really cool idea! The students would be able to see that on the recording as well. What would be even better is if they can download the transcript for their use.
As everyone has already said, Dragon is a voice recognition software. Others include Text Speaker, Speakonia, Dictation Pro, and e-Speaking. I believe that the biggest advantage of using any of these software is the ability to do hands-free computing. If a task for a student with disabilities requires that he/she jump back and forth from your computer to other tasks, any of these software type can allow him/her to do both things at once. It is also a huge benefit to those with limited mobility or some other kind of disability that makes it difficult to use a keyboard and mouse.
Trista,
Yes, Dragon Naturally Speaking can be of assistance to anyone, those with disabilities and those without disabilities.
Renee Shaffer
I am hoping to eventually integrate software like Dragon Naturally Speaking into my live chat sessions. I speak during these sessions in order to cover the necessary material in an hour, but students often have difficulty hearing me - either due to technical issues like connection speed or perhaps due to a disability. If Dragon Naturally Speaking could add my lecture during the session to text in the Chat pod for the sake of a running and then archived transcript, then we'd be cooking with gas! :-)
Dragon Naturally Speaking is speech-recognition software that is used by many, with or without a disability. As their advertisements suggest, many individuals with something to say but seldom something to write can more easily translate their thoughts into the written word with this program. For those individuals with physical disabilities that prevent them from typing, this program is an indispensable resource in this technological age - even beyond the classroom.
Mara,
Maybe you can try Dragon Naturally Speaking sometime in the near future and see how it works for you.
Renee Shaffer
Dragon Naturally Speaking is a speech recognition software that faculty at the institution I teach at have received training on. It's an optional tool, and one I haven't used myself. However, from the description, it enables faculty members to prepare and record short presentations that can be used repeatedly, or emailed to students who are having difficulties with a particular topic, whether the instructor or the student is disabled or not.
Cyndy,
yes, this has been a great tool of physicians!
Renee Shaffer
Claire,
yes, I heard that the new iMac is really cool that way.
Renee Shaffer
