From this point forth, Dictation Technology and Speech-to-Text technology (STT) will be the fundamental focus of the discussion. STT software’s convert spoken word into text. Without even realising, there are many modern forms of dictation technology embedded within the technologies that we all use on a day-to-day basis. Apple’s Siri, Windows’ Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa are the most modern and famous voice recognition software’s with widespread usage in today’s society.
Dictation technology has become increasingly useful for learners with visual impairments, physical impairments, learners who have difficulty typing/using the keyboard, dyslexia and other barriers that prevent students from easily applying their ideas on paper. When effectively employed, dictation technology can support learners by encouragement and access, whereby learners could have a greater opportunity to become more independent, engaged and in control of their work. Arcon (2015, p.10) outlines the context of dictation technology and it’s advantageous possibilities:
‘removing transcription from the writing process and offering students the opportunity to dictate their ideas via speech-to-text technology [can] better quality writing in struggling readers….it helps produce more fluent writing by reducing mechanical demands…which can potentially enhance their compositions’
Dictation technology converts spoken word into text and is becoming increasingly precise, accessible and engaging (Farrell, 2008). Specialist software’s that are used in education, require students’ to remember dictation demands to navigate the software. Additionally, students have to read passages for the software to recognise their voices. Most significantly, teachers must be immersed in the technology, to provide support and advice to its users to consequently sustain their engagement. The extent to which STT software’s effectively enhance or reduce the learning process will be explored further on the next page.
However, many academics have completed studies which have concluded that STT software’s contributed to the learning process of students who have various ‘barriers to learning’. Overall, many existing studies conclude that after the use of STT software’s, students with various barriers to learning produced better quality writing, in comparison to previous work without the use of the dictation technology (Higgins and Raskind, 1995; MacArthur and Cavalier, 2004; Quinlan, 2004). Nonetheless, such advantageous results only occur as a consequence of ‘STT’ software’s being effectively implemented by institutions, operated successfully by users and enriched by educators.
Additionally, it is essential that our educators are fully immersed and engaged with the technologies themselves, to ensure successful implementation. Higgins and Raskind (2004) also emphasised the importance of teachers to be motivated and fully aware of the technology. They asserted that for the potential of the assistive technology to be at it’s highest, “significant monitoring and supervision must be planned for and training provided to instructors and aides’ (ibid, p.366). Higgins and Raskind’s (2004) perception resonates to those emphasised in Miller and Glover’s (2002) study, whom also recognised the importance of teachers to believe themselves in the way the digital technology can transform the learning processes of their student’s. Evidently, there are many ‘stakeholders’ when attempting to implement digital, assistive technologies into a traditional classroom environment:
‘successful and realistic implementation of computer technology depends on teachers commitment, computer awareness and knowledge of effective pedagogical principles; administrative support; effective matching of curriculum goals; teaching philosophy; validated instructional procedure; appropriate computer application and students individual strengths and needs’
(Sitko and Sitko, 1995, p.1)
There are many theoretical principles surrounding dictation technology, which suggests why STT software’s have great potential to improve the learning process of students. Dornan (1999, p.22) illuminates the value of dictation technology and its correlation to the significant underlying constructivist assumptions:
‘as Vygotsky (1878) reminds us, language has a vital role in enabling children to solve practical skills, not simply with their eyes and hands, but also with speech’
Dornan’s (1999) above comment encourages us to consider the valuable opportunities than the use of dictation technology can provide. Additionally, we are encouraged to perceive how the use of dictation technology, can be beneficial ‘as a means to support learning’ (Selwyn ,2011, p.66) for all students’, despite that many ‘AT’s have been designed to support the needs of learners with certain educational barriers.
THE DRAGON IN THE CLASSROOM 