Do you ever have those days when you are just going nuts because you can’t type?
I’m having one of those days.
I came across this post by David Pogue and he was talking about his book-writing use of Dragon Naturally Speaking software. It intrigued me.
I found it for just above $150 at my trusty academic software site. Presumably I’d have to run it on my Windows PC which means I can’t blog with it like I’d like, unless I become more PC-based again.
I see there’s a mac version of IBM Via Voice v3 but I have to believe that if it were comparable Pogue would be using it.
So, any hints here? Any recommendations? Thoughts? Worthwhile investment?
Miss Profe says:
I attended a five-day workshop @ Landmark College in Vermont last summer re: Teaching Languages to Students with LD and ADHD. One of the sessions I attended was one re: technology, and the Dragon software was presented. About two months ago, one of my second year Spanish students participated in the Silent Protest Day for GLBT students, and as he could not speak, he used Dragon in order to communicate with me. I thought it a brillant use of the Dragon software. All that being said, I am not exactly sure how I would use it in my Spanish classes, or on my blog, for that matter. I am intrigued by it nonetheless.
11th June 2007 at 7:33 pm
Jason Hando says:
Hi Chris,
It was years ago that I found this software hopeless so I checked just now on amazon customer reviews and it seems there is still some problems but overall the feedback is good.
There is one comment where the person make their comment using the software – very interesting way of giving feedback through the mistakes in the words etc.!
But by far the majority of reviews say it works well after training so perhaps it would be a worthwhile investment?
Does it come with a [try before you commit] 30 day return policy?
How many can you find on eBay – and is it a good thing if there are lots
Cheers,
Jason
11th June 2007 at 8:05 am
Ben says:
I did a promo on my site back in November and gave away two copies of it, and received a third copy for myself. It is one of the best, if not the best voice recognition software around. Quite handy for multi-tasking like playing some video games and writing at the same time
If you’re working on a PC though, and you have the latest version of MS Office (or later than 2004) you should have voice recognition built in. It’s not as great as Dragon Speak Naturally, but it does the job.
11th June 2007 at 9:17 am
Karen Janowski says:
Speech recognition has been around for a number of years with dramatic improvements compared to early versions where -you- spoke-one -word- at – a – time. I have used the speech recognition built into Office 2003 and DNS v. 9 and find they both are excellent. Haven’t had the chance to try SR built into VISTA yet but I’ve heard the accuracy is excellent as well.
I work with struggling learners, including students with output issues due to a variety of reasons, and have taught students to use SR. This latest version of DNS does not even require training although your accuracy is best with training.
Hardware requirements include at least 1 GIG of RAM, fast processor. Personal requirements include willingness to make corrections, persist in the face of frustration and there is a significant cognitive shift from word processing written documents to producing them through speech. That is difficult for some students.
It is a wonderful program and benefits many kids. SR has entered prime time as long as you have a fast processor with ALOT of memory!
Keep in mind, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You can combine SR with typing if necessary and that sometimes works best for students.
hope this helps!
11th June 2007 at 9:05 pm