NEW INPUT METHODS: WHAT ARE THEY? HOW DO THEY FIT IN THE CLASSROOM? PART 4 (Final Part)

THE CLASSROOM AND SCHOOL

How Would Teachers and Students Learn the New Input Methods?

Teachers, and specifically business teachers, will have to learn the new input methods before students can learn the new methods. In Nebraska some business teachers attended a conference to learn how to use voice recognition software, after completing that course they went back to their schools and then taught their peers in their school divisions (Arneson). This is an effective way for teachers to learn the software; it allows for the teachers who will be teaching the software to learn from the highest point and then allows them to have practice teaching it with their peers before they teach students the software.

Students would learn the methods through traditional methods. Dr. Patricia Arneson states that typical phrases that are used today such as “eyes on copy, feet flat on floor, ready, begin” will be replaced with “microphone on, start dragon pad, microphone off” (Arneson). Students would continue to practice speed and accuracy as well as continue to create documents and be tested. The only difference would be the methods that they use to create the documents and to practice their speed and accuracy. One portion of the current system that would have to be revised is the amount of homework students have. It would have to be assumed, at first, that students do not have the necessary software and tools at home to be able to complete their homework at home.

How would students be tested?

Testing would not have to change very much at all due to the new input methods, the students would still be inputting data. Students could still be tested on speed, and accuracy in regards to inputting the data, as well they could continue to be tested on how to manipulate data into documents. The difference would come in the requirements that students are expected to meet to complete assignments and to be graded on.

Another aspect that would change in testing and evaluation would be homework; students would not necessarily have the proper equipment at home to complete assignments using voice recognition or handwriting recognition software. Therefore there would need to be more classroom evaluation than homework that is handed in to the teacher.

How would classrooms be setup?

Classrooms would not have to change dramatically, for the students to learn to the fullest extent it would be important for each student to have a computer to work on during class time. Most schools would already have labs in place and this would not be something that teachers would have to worry about. However if teachers had to they would need to find a solution to maximize the amount of time students would have with the software to meet the curriculum's requirements and to ensure the student knows how to use the software properly.

An important aspect of the classroom would be the establishment of rules regarding the new software. By having reasonable rules in the classroom you can be effective as a teacher (Lang and Evans 171). By creating rules such as “respect the equipment” and “respect each other” a teacher will be able to have an effective classroom.

CONCLUSION

The new input methods should be an important part of the future curriculum in Saskatchewan, and for that matter everywhere. There uses will become essential to businesses throughout the world, if students know how to use these technologies it will allow them to have an advantage in the working world. Voice recognition has also proved to be able to help students with disabilities and can help them achieve success that they previously would not have been able to achieve without the proper use of aids such as voice recognition. There are many uses for these new input technologies; however they will not be able to be used properly unless they are taught to students in a way that will benefit the students, not just a small unit taught once in grade nine. It all starts with teaching the teachers, who should be constant learners, how to use the technologies and allow them to then teach others.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Andrews, Jean. A+ Guide to Hardware. 3rd. Boston:

Thomson Course Technology, 2004.

Arneson, Patricia. "SPArticle." NebraskaDepartment of Education.

04 December 2004. 26 Sept 2006 .

Austen, Ian. "Learning to Speak Their Minds." The New York Times

19 July 2001 26 Sep 2006 .

Cook, Stephen. "Hardware." Speech Recognition HOWTO.

19 Apr 2002. 26 Sep 2006 OWTO/hardware.html>.

Cook , Stephen. "Inside Speech Recognition." Speech Recognition HOWTO.

19 Apr 2002. 26 Sep 2006 .

Cook, Stephen. "Introduction." Speech Recognition HOWTO.

19 Apr 2002. 26 Sep 2006 .

"Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred." Nuance. 29 Sep 2006

.

Effective Methods of Teaching Business Education in the 21st Century.

2003. Reston, VA: National Business Education Association, 2003.

"Evergreen Curriculum Guides Resources." Saskatchewan Learning.

29 Sep 2006 .

Fine, Sean. "New Technologies offer greater opportunities for disabled students."

The Globe and Mail 16 October 2000 26 Sep 2006 .

"Frequently Asked Questions." Handwriting Recognition software - MyScript Notes.

2005. Vision Objects. 26 Sep 2006 .

"Gates Showcases Tablet PC, Xbox at COMDEX; Says New "Digital Decade"

Technologies Will Transform How We Live." Microsoft. 11 November 2001. Microsoft. 29 Sep 2006 .

"Handwriting Recognition Software." Handwriting Recognition Software.

2005. Vision Objects. 26 Sep 2006 .

"Keyboarding - Competencies." Saskatchewan Learning.

29 Sep 2006 .

Lang, Hellmut, and David Evans. Models, Strategies, and Methods for effective teaching.

1st edition. Boston: Pearson Education Inc., 2006.

Sowell, Thomas. Basic Economics. Expanded. New York: Basic

Books, 2004.

"Suggested Course Configurations." Saskatchewan Learning. 2003. 29 Sep 2006

.

"Words per minute." Wikipedia. 25 Sep 2006. 27 Sep 2006. .

Wiki's in the Classroom

The use of wiki’s in the classroom can be valuable as students and teachers have a tool to facilitate their learning. Now students have a place to discuss and contribute to a subject at anytime and almost any place. Teachers too can monitor the tool and be able to see what students have to say on a subject outside of the classroom. Maybe a students doesn’t want to speak up in class but has a great idea, this idea could be placed on the wiki and be equally as important as one spoken in the class.

I can foresee myself using a wiki in numerous classes; the tool is great for allowing student involvement. For example, I could have a computer science project due and the group could communicate and hand in their project online on the wiki.

Through the wiki it should become obvious as to whether students are learning or not if the teacher is constantly monitoring the updates to the wiki. A teacher can see the progress of a project and also see where a project is stalled. This allows the teacher to be able to step up and help the group move on with the project.

ShiftHappens

First off this is a new site that I found through Cool Cat Teacher and I think it has LOADS of potential to be used as a teaching tool in any curricular area. It is called Slideshare and it is similar to YouTube in that you can search the site for different presentations.

The presentation that I have attached is based on the ideas that the world is changing dramatically right now and that education needs to recognize this. It is US based but that doesn't mean it doesn't apply to Canadian teachers or even South African teachers for that matter.

Take a look it is very interesting.



Another interesting Slideshare show that I found on Educational Technology is the following:


To find more Slideshare shows based on Education Technology check this out:
SlideShare Education Technology Search

Diffrentiated Classrooms

I read a article on the importance of the differentiated classroom today. The article covered all the levels of education from Early Childhood to High School. Naturally I focused my reading on the high school area of the article. The article didn't focus at all on any business type classes but the message was not lost. The message was that teachers have always had to manage different types of students in their classrooms. In the one room school house it was grade 1's and grade 12's in the same room, now it is different learning styles, different cultures, ect. (Although I find there is an error in this statement. This statement says that students didn't have different learning styles before and that this is a new phenomenon. This simply isn't true and to me shows that the statement is a general one.).


While reading the article I started to think about how I could have a differentiated classroom within a business course. At first it is difficult because I immediately think about how you are going to test the students to the degree the Department of Learning wants you to while individualizing the students work.

Then I realized I don't have to concentrate on the work only to differentiate the classroom. I could add things to my classroom and my teaching styles. When teaching a lesson incorporate as many different mediums as possible. Some students are visual learners (PowerPoint, White Board, Posters, Video), some are auditory learners (Lecture, radio, music, discussion). The point is that you could simply try and hit home to all these senses within your lesson to allow different types of learners the opportunity to learn within a medium that they understand and feel comfortable with.

Other options could be to give different students different work. However if I were to do that I would want to have 1 on 1 meetings with the students and talk to them and gain an understanding of what they expect themselves to do. I wouldn't want to give different students different work yet allow this practice to have no value if students are not setting goals to go past what they initially think is a practical goal for themselves. By meeting with the students 1 on 1 I would get the chance to understand the students concerns and the student would get the chance to understand my expectations. My concern is that some students would see this as an opportunity to be "lazy" do something that isn't challenging to them and get a better grade.

Maybe the problem for me is that I too am hung up on the importance of grades. After all grades dictate everything in this day and age. Scholarships, jobs, money, your future, the parts of peoples lives that are affected by grades are endless. In my opinion for a true Differentiated classroom to work the students, parents, teachers, administration, and the community would need to be understanding of how the classroom is working to better each individual student and how the class is not competing against each other but them selves for grades.

NEW INPUT METHODS: WHAT ARE THEY? HOW DO THEY FIT IN THE CLASSROOM? PART 3

EVERGREEN CURRICULUM

How could these Input Methods be Incorporated in Saskatchewan?

Currently there is nothing in the Saskatchewan Evergreen curriculum that teaches students either voice recognition software or handwriting recognition software. Students are currently missing out on technologies that will change the way business is done in the future.

These technologies have greater values than just to be taught to students, they can also help disabled students in the classroom. Take for instance a blind student, if a teacher where to run software while they lectured the class this would enable a blind student to get notes. The software could take what the teacher says and convert it into Braille for the blind student to then take home and read his notes (Fine).

Further to helping the blind voice recognition is able to help dyslexic students as well. Dr. Marshall H. Raskin, a learning disabilities researcher at the Frostig Center in Pasadena, California, has proved that not only have grades improved for dyslexic students when they use voice recognition software but their condition has also improved over time. Students began to tell Dr. Raskin that their reading and writing skills where improving after a year of using the voice recognition program Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The problem that Dr. Raskin has had is that people who don’t understand have said that it is unfair to other students that don’t get to use the software. Dr. Raskin responds to those statements with the argument that you wouldn’t take away a blind mans walking cane (Austen).

The new input methods do have many uses in a school, from helping students with disabilities to simply teaching the input methods of the future to all students. These new input methods will be widespread in the future, as Bill Gates thought five years ago that tablet PC’s would be the most popular PC’s on the market today ("Gates Showcases Tablet PC, Xbox at COMDEX; Says New "Digital Decade" Technologies Will Transform How We Live"). Although Gates was wrong about the time frame he is almost certainly right about the future of the computer.

Where do the Input Methods Fall in the Curriculum?

Saskatchewan currently has a strong curriculum surrounding the use of the keyboard, with curriculum starting as early as grade one ("Curriculum Guides Resources"). The importance of keyboard skills should not be overlooked even with the emergence of software like voice recognition and handwriting recognition. Keyboarding is not going to be disappearing anytime soon, and even with the use of voice recognition corrections need to be made and if a user is not proficient with the software being able to fall back onto a keyboard is vastly important.

For that reason these new technologies should not be introduced before students have learned how to key properly. Further to that students should be proficient in both speed and accuracy before they are taught how to use voice recognition and handwriting recognition. According to the Keyboarding Learning Competencies of Saskatchewan this would mean that the new input methods would not be taught until at least grade five or six ("Keyboarding - Competencies"). This of course takes into consideration that the students will be taught the proper skills at the proper time according to the curriculum.

The majority of teaching surrounding the input methods should come in high school through the information processing classes in Saskatchewan. This will allow students who want to learn the technology to gain a higher appreciation through more course hours with the technology. The Saskatchewan information processing curriculum is comprised of 100 hours, with keyboarding taking up approximately 15 percent of those hours over the course of the 10, 20 and 30 level classes ("Suggested Course Configurations"). Similar amount of time should be set aside for learning the new types of input methods. Finding a way to integrate the new input technologies is the key, as they are important but no more or less important than what is already in the curriculum. It is important that the new methods are integrated and do not replace items in the curriculum.

Funding

Funding for these new technologies could be quite large, as there are many new pieces of equipment that the recognition programs need. Buying the proper licenses for the software can be quite expensive; Dragon NaturallySpeaking costs approximately $200 ("Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred"). Licenses for the program would naturally be cheaper, and the more you buy would lower the cost even more. However even if the price was $100 and you want 35 software packages per school and you have 100 schools to put the software in the cost is $350,000. That is the cost of just the software, the cost of the hardware could be just as high or higher depending on if you just need headsets, or if you need to replace entire laboratories to make sure the computers in the labs have the proper requirements. With such large costs it would tough for any school division in Saskatchewan to simply implement all of the software at one time, the new technologies would have to be implemented in stages.

NEW INPUT METHODS: WHAT ARE THEY? HOW DO THEY FIT IN THE CLASSROOM? PART 2

What is Handwriting Recognition?

Handwriting recognition is the act of a computer reading what a user writes down on different mediums with a digital or stylus pen. Handwriting is not necessarily faster than keying and it is definitely not as fast a speaking, however handwriting is as fast as or faster than using a mouse (Effective Methods of Teaching Business Education in the 21st Century 126).

Many platforms use handwriting recognition, such as Palm Pilots, Blackberry phones, and tablet PC’s. A tablet PC is similar to a notebook computer, and the cost is similar if not slightly higher for the tablet PC. On a tablet PC you have a normal Windows operating system however the screen acts as a touch screen and you can use a stylus to write notes or draw on (Andrews 524). This is a great tool for someone like a student to take notes in class or an architect to design buildings right on the computer. Being able to use handwriting recognition like this allows for easy transportability and increases the accessibility to their information. Another bonus to handwriting recognition is that it can be learned by students in approximately 45 minutes (Effective Methods of Teaching Business Education in the 21st Century 126).

How does Handwriting Recognition work?

Handwriting recognition works by having the user write with a digital pen on a type of media that will then send that information to the computer to be processed. MyScript^® Notes, a handwriting recognition software package, uses the term “digital ink” to describe the information that the user has written. The “digital ink” is then processed and compared to handwriting that the software has been trained with in a given language. Therefore you can write in any language as long as the software has been trained to recognize that writing style. You can also increase the accuracy of the program by training it to match your handwriting style better (“Frequently Asked Questions”).

Once the software has processed the “digital ink” it can be put to use in many different programs including: Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, Paint, as well as many other programs (Andrews 525). Similarly to voice recognition software, handwriting recognition software also requires a good computer to run the software, the requirements for MyScript^® Notes are 233MHz and 128 MB of memory ("Handwriting Recognition Software").

Alan November Podcast

Alan November Podcast Located Here

"Historically, community dissatisfaction with school communication has remained unchanged despite Mabry's best efforts. However, in one year, with the advent of blogging, that level of dissatisfaction has been cut in half. School and community communication is but part of this story. Blogging can also be leveraged to maximize student engagement and academic achievement as well as student collaboration with peers and professionals around the world."

I love what this principal did at his school. He forced his staff to have a blog and post on it at least once a week. What happened? Many teachers loved their blogs and found them to be great tools to help them reach out to students with content and to allow parents to be involved in the learning process. Parents loved the blogs because they actually knew what their children were learning in their classes. I can just imagine the conversation at the dinner table for a student in that class:

Mom - "So what did you do in School today?"

Son - "Nothin."

Mom - "Really? You didn't learn a single thing?"

Son - "Not really."

Mom - "Really because on Mr. Petersen's blog it says you learned about the concepts of microbiology and that you have a test on chapter 3 on Friday."

Son - "Oh yeah."

This school realized the power of the blog and has taken it and used it to their advantages and I love it. There is no reason to be afraid of technology, if you are ask the people on your staff who know what to do to help you. I'm sure they would love to help you to start a blog.

If you don't have a blog start one today, it's easy.

Here I'll even help you out....just click HERE and you are well on your way.

NEW INPUT METHODS: WHAT ARE THEY? HOW DO THEY FIT IN THE CLASSROOM? PART 1

This is a excerpt from some research I did on growing technologies in the classroom. Part 1 follows, I will post the other parts in the days to come, the sources will be included with the last part.

Enjoy.

INTRODUCTION

The world has changed dramatically in the last fifty years, from the typewriter to the keyboard, to cell phones, and now to the introduction of voice recognition and speech recognition. The way that people do business is constantly changing and a challenge for business teachers is to stay on top of emerging technologies to ensure that students are equipped with relevant skills when they enter the workforce. New methods for inputting data are going to be a major change in the business world. How are teachers going to be able to teach their students these new technologies? They will need to understand the technologies and how they relate to the business world, as well they will need to adapt to the way they have to teach students the new methods.

NEW INPUT METHODS

What is Voice Recognition?

“Speech recognition is an alternative to traditional input methods that outperforms all previous options” (Effective Methods of Teaching Business Education in the 21st Century 125). That is to say that speech recognition is a new technology that is more efficient than older and current input methods such as keying. The average person currently keys at a speed of 30 to 45 WPM, which is the speed most used as a requirement for jobs requiring keying. Meanwhile most human beings speak at a speed of 200 WPM in normal conversation (Words per minute). That is four to six times faster than the average person can key. Although it is true that humans can speak at a rate of 200 WPM most voice recognition software has people averaging speeds of 110 to 170 WPM (Effective Methods of Teaching Business Education in the 21st Century 125).

Such great speeds can make the business world a much more efficient place. Currently at speeds of 45 WPM it would take 10 minutes to key a 450 word document, while it would take a meager 3 or 4 minutes to speak that same document, that saves over half the amount of time it takes to key a document. Five minutes might not seem like much, but when you take someone like a secretary who keys quite a bit it can save lots of time. As an example if a secretary keys 450,000 words a year, that would take 10,000 minutes to key whereas if the secretary used speech recognition software it would take approximately 2650 minutes. That is an astounding 123 hours less time over the year.

The value of speech recognition is enormous, if a business could save 123 man hours every year to be used somewhere else they would be ecstatic. It would be economical for businesses and everyone in general to use speech recognition as the definition of economics is “economics is the study of the use of scarce resources which have alternative uses” (Sowell 1). Well the secretary in this example is the scarce resource and the secretary could have alternative resources.

How does Voice Recognition work?

Voice or Speech recognition is “the process by which a computer identifies spoken words” (Cook "Introduction"). This is to say that it basically works by having a user speak into the computer and then have the computer interpret what it receives from the user. The user will use a microphone to input the speech into the computer through the sound card. It is recommended that the user uses a quality microphone, such as a headset microphone, to reduce ambient noises that could change the way the computer software interprets the sounds it receives from the user (Cook “Hardware”).

Once the sound has reached the software what does it do with it? Voice recognition software is broken up into two different types: Pattern Recognition, which compares patterns to patterns that have been previously trained into the software, and Acoustic Phonetic, which uses programmed knowledge of the human mechanics of speech and then compares that with human speech features (Cook “Inside Speech Recognition”).

Because sound is an analogue occurrence, a computer needs to change the input material into a digital format. This takes a fair amount of CPU power and therefore not any computer can run a voice recognition program smoothly. Stephen Cook recommends that you use a computer that has a processor running at 400MHz and have 128MB of RAM (Cook “Hardware”). Although this is not very much speed and memory compared to what most computers are equipped with, it is just the bare minimum of what most software requires. There are many different software packages on the market for many operating systems, such as Nuance’s “Dragon Virtually Speaking” which runs on Windows platforms to XVoice which runs on a Linux operating system.

IndustryPlayer

IndustryPlayer Education Site

This looks like a interesting game to keep students engaged in a curriculum such as Entrepreneurship. I am going to look more into the game and see if it would be at the level of a High School student or if the game is geared more towards a university or college student.

What I like about the game at first glance is that it will keep the students engaged in the learning process through a interactive game. I also like the simulation aspect of the game, although it would be ideal for the students to run their own entrepreneurial business within their own school this might not always be possible. This game could allow for the students that do not have the opportunity to do a real life simulation to gain valuable skills.

Update: It looks as though the game is geared towards post secondary students however I think there would be a definite market for a secondary and even a elementary geared game of this kind. If you know of any let me know.

Responding to Mr. Warlicks Response on the NY Times

Original Blog by David Warlick
NYTimes Article

I have not read the story in the NY Times that Mr. Warlick is repsonding to but only with the following statement you can understand what the article is about:

"What’s good about the “Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops” article, written for The New York Times by Winnie Hu, is that this story was not limited only to people who live within the NYTimes paper delivery area. It was immediately available to readers around the world — including youngsters, sitting at their desks, their laptops open, browsers engaged, accessing and interacting with a global library of content."

This really is a profound thought, think about it. Not only is the NYTimes available instantly to billions of people world wide but newspapers like the Regina Leader-Post or the Saskaton Star Pheonix are available as well. Why is it that this resource is not used in the classroom? Remember when the teacher would bring in 25 copies of old newspapers that you would get to pick an article out of and do some reading or writing assignment with? Why don't teachers do this with these online Newpapers? You could still accomplish the same objectives but with current events while keeping the students engaged with the tool of the internet. You could combine English, Social Studies and some sort of Keyboarding into one class, one assignment.

As a Business Education major I really think that a necessary for elementry through secondary students to have the skill of keyboarding. (Sorry about going off on a tangent there)

This comment couldn't be more true:

“I’ve covered this material perfectly well for twenty years.” They’d say, “Why change now!”

At work today I had a revalation of sorts, and it hits this statement. Today I was helping a "digital immigrant" and it was no surprise when this person paid by debit. However 3 years ago when I started to work here these same "digital imigrants" would NEVER pay by debit, it would be cash and cheques. My thought was that if these immigrants have changed to accept technology when it coems to their money why have the immigrant teachers not changed to accept the technology in the classroom? Even my dad uses a debit card now.

These teachers can't be so oblivious to the changes of the world they live in to not see that their methodologies are outdated can they? This certainly would be an ignorant worldview possed by these educators.

With so many new mediums to use why would a teacher not want to take advantage of these technological advances? Just off the top of my head I can think of a dozne or so mediums to use:

1. Searchengines
2. Podcasts
3. Webpages
4. Projectors
5. Inspiration
6. Excel
7. Word
8. Imovie
9. Photoshop
10. Dreamweaver
11. DragonNaturally Speaking
12. Handwritting recognition
13. Videos
14. Garage Band
15. DVD
16. VHS (For some this may be an upgrade)

"...the skills they are developing: to ask essential questions, research, evaluate, collaborate, process, mix and remix, and publish their findings — learning to be active learners in a rapidly changing world — these skills are not tested."

This quote sends a important question in the air, why are these skills not tested? Are these skills considered not important? Are they considered not necessary? Are they considered easy? Hard? Simple? Complex?

Reading, Wrinting, Math, and Science are your typically tested subject areas. Without trying to discount this subject areas (as they too are important), why is the technological areas such as IP, Multimedia or Computer Science discounted and considered not important for the average student to know? You could ask a student what a Verb, Period, PEDMAS, and Energy are and they would be able to give you a basic answer but would they be able to tell you what a mail merge is? a pivot table? Java? C++? SQL are? These are equally important concepts as the world moves on to be more and more dependent on computers and technology in general.

I wonder what people were writing about when the pencil replaced the quill?