Overview

Speech to Text technology is also known as speech recognition technology.  It is made to recognize someone’s remarks once they are spoken into the system and then display the remarks on the computer.  This is obviously appealing to anyone who has attempted to take notes during a class, understanding important speeches and so much more!  Speech recognition technology could be very beneficial to many people, especially in the classroom.

History

People have been trying to achieve speech recognition technology for just about as long as there have been digital computers.  One of the first was called an Automatic Digit Recognizer, or “Audrey”.  Although Audrey was fairly accurate there was much adjusting and maintenance that went into it.

There has been quite a bit of advancements since the 1950’s.  In 2001, Microsoft came out with speech recognition technology but there was still quite a bit of adjusting with the technology to one’s voice.  However, it worked great in comparison.

In the classroom

From the sites listed below and a number of others, as educators, we can use Speech to Text technology in a number of ways.  The first and most prominent way this could be used is for ELL students and students with any sort of exceptionality that may inhibit their ability to take notes or even absorb the content being discussed in any class.  If a student was introduced to this technology, (s)he would be able to review the lecture on his/her own time and really delve into the material.

Also, as was said previously, this is good in many other settings including speeches and more.  If the text to a speech, movie clip, and more could be found online, the teacher could play it; all the while using speech recognition technology to allow the students a copy of it to dissect later.

Useful sites

1.  As was stated previously, Microsoft is one of the most important players in the advancement of speech recognition technology.  This site will help you find the speech recognition that may already be on your computer or give you the tools to download it to your pc, depending on your system.

http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/windowsvista/speech.aspx

2.  This site acclaims to be the first speech recognition software that is 99% accurate and can be used in a few different settings and with different vocabularies.  More specifically, the software can be used in professional, medical and legal settings and obviously the vocabulary used in these settings is going to be very different.  I believe teaching would be in the “professional” category.

http://speechrecognition.com/

3.  This site is inspired by people who want to help students with hearing disabilities.  The TypeWell technology is about transcribing speech to text.

http://typewell.com/

4.  This pdf is entitled, “Improving Speech Recognition to Assist Real-time Classroom Note Taking.  Educators can benefit from it by discovering key points and more through the text.

http://www.csc.villanova.edu/~tway/publications/kheirresna06.pdf

5.  This article helps educators see the benefits of using speech recognition technology and even gives specific examples for how it can be used.

 http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED395110.pdf

Resources

http://www.ehow.com/facts_6729109_software-speech-text.html

http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Speech_Recognition