TFIII.B+Interview

I interviewed a member of the Special Education Dept. here at Cy-Springs HS regarding Assistive Technology use at Cy-Springs. Of particular interest to me is the use of Speech-to-Text software. The teacher I spoke to expressed pretty lukewarm sentiments regarding the current level of support for this technology. The software program (or possibly the computer itself) runs too slowly to be of much use. Students do use it (on the one computer it is installed on) but express frustration with how slowly it functions. For example, a student will say something, and then make a correction, but the computer will still be processing the original comment, and won't adjust in time for the correction. I did not get to witness the software being used, but I can sympathize with how frustrating the experience must be. Positively, the student who uses the software has access to the computer during any class period and teachers have been accommodating in allowing him to leave class to use it. There are however, a number of different avenues available that could alleviate the situation:

For modest Budget:

[|Dragon Naturally Speaking] [|YouTube Demo]

Free Options:

[|Windows 7 built in Speech to Text]

Comparison:

[|Comparison of Dragon and Windows 7]