How could these Input Methods be Incorporated in
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?
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
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
4 comments:
Is this a report for another class? :-)
Okay - I'll bite.
You mention that "there is nothing in the SK curriculum that teaches students either voice recognition software or handwriting recognition software".
There is also nothing in the curriculum that teachers students how to use the overhead projector or the microwave.
Do you think all students should have to learn how to use them just 'in case" they someday need them? Or, do we use the tools and teach kids to use them when the tool is needed by the student?
We have classrooms where DragonSpeak is being used by students who cannot keyboard. The challenge is that you have to train it to your voice - if your enunciation is not accurate and if your reading is not strong....ah problems arise.
Does SkLearning have a curriculum around keyboarding in anything other than InfoPro classes? (Curriculum is different from competencies). This of course brings up a whole other interesting topic - can you still be a competent learner is you do not learn how to keyboard properly? Say yes, say yes, because I spent most of Gr. 10 typing fooling around. I would memorize the passages and then look at the keys to type. I still look at the keys to date.
Now I will have to sign this anonymously in shame....
When I wrote this I wrote it from the perspective of Business Educator. I think in classes such as IP you are in fact teaching the skills that go along with a tool and in IP there is NO mention of these new input methods.
I understand that Dragon NaturallySpeaking is being used in Regina but it is still not being used in Business Ed Classes because the curriculum has called for that skill to be learned. That is the point that I was trying to make.
Your point about how you memorized the passages and how Keying was spent fooling around is a real challenge for teachers who teach keying. My personal thought is that in todays age students in Gr. 10 think it is "stupid" to be taught how to key. They do it everyday so why do they need to be taught now?
I really think that in the elementary years this skill needs to be taught more and better. Students come to high school with the necessary skills to simply move on with English (I know, generalization), so why too can they not come to High School with the same skills in Keying? or hopefully Voice Recognition and Handwriting recognition software?
But what I still do not get....duh is why all students need to learn how to use Voice Recognition and Handwriting recognition software? Are these not tools that students can acccess IF they need the adaptation? It may be part of the Business Ed. curric. because it has been decided that these students need awareness of the various tools that may be used in the business world.
I think the important thing to keep in mind is that the tools we have today will be different than the tools available in 5 years. What do students need to learn so that they can adapt with the change - as change is the only constant in the world of technology.
MM
From my perspective teaching in IP and CPT and these types of classes you are not teaching and using technology as the tool. Technology is the content. Keying, Word proccessing, Flash, HTML, Websites, Voice Recognition, Handwritting, all of these types of things are the content, not just tools.
I understand in different classrooms and different subjects and grade levels that they are the tool. But from my perspective, and in the subjects I am passionate about, they are the content not just the tool.
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