Across the years I have tried dictation software with mixed results. Oddly enough I was testing this kind of teaching/learning tool (but in the company of a different dog) six years ago on this date!
Here are some of my earlier misadventures—they still make me laugh!
Right now I am using Nuance’s new Mac upgrade of Dragon Dictate to “write” this short blog. My motivation needing to assist my business partner Greg Schneider install the software on his machine. Greg is quite facile with earlier versions of this tool. I am so blessed to have him as a friend, business partner, confidante, and annual fishing partner.
Perhaps dictation software tools will overcome my handicap of not being able to type!
Stay tuned for my adventures and misadventures with dictation software —and some initially very short blogs!
And Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate this American holiday.
Tag: dictation software
Razing the Bars (Wordplay continued)…
Shoveling Cleaning my office today I came across this history of the spell checker poem “Candidate for a Pullet Surprise:”
“I have a spelling checker,
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea…”
I sometimes use it as a “screen” for hiring student assistants who can proofread carefully, spell, and have a good sense of humor. Sometimes I have them read it aloud or dictate it to a computer.
Nuanced monologue: I’ve been talking to my computer a lot lately—and sometimes it talks back.
I’ve been talking a lot to my computer lately since I installed on my Mac the Mavericks Operating system. I have been quite impressed by the dictation accuracy of Nuance’s Dragon Dictate and the degree to which I can use voice commands to control the machine. Over the past 40 some years I have followed with interest developments in “communication” between humans and computers. In the 60’s I interacted with Eliza, the Rogerian therapist and in the 70’s the Talking Moose resided on my early Macs—useful toys. But the capabilities of software to “read” text, translate simple conversations, and follow voice commands has dramatically improved since then and become useful in my work. What was once fiction (e.g. The Circle, 2312, Lexicon) is much closer to (dystopian) reality. The challenge remains how to let technology be a tool controlled by (rather than controlling) me. It is easy to be seduced by the WOW factor. .
So far I have not QUITE formed a “singular” “SIRIous” emotional relationship with “her” nor discussed serious religious beliefs . Now, my relationship with books is another matter!