Speech Recognition's Role in Reducing Injuries

By Karl Barksdale © 2003
ITS OFFICIAL, AND IT IS HISTORIC and POLICY #73 IS THE KEY!

Amid the flurry of activities at the recent NBEA conference in Dallas, the Policies Committee drafted an insightful new policy to help guide Business Education through the looming input technologies evolution.

The Policies Commission for Business and Economic Education is a national-level commission representing the Association for Career and Technical Education/Business Education Division, Delta Pi Epsilon, and the National Business Education Association. To wet your appetite, here’s the introductory paragraph:

Policy Statement 73: This We Believe about Computer-Input Technologies:

“Trends in technology require business educators to provide opportunities for all students to learn the new technologies and techniques that are emerging in today’s workplace. Current technologies include speech recognition; handwriting recognition tools, such as Tablet PCs; Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and other handheld devices; and scanners. While touch keyboarding techniques remain a viable foundation for entering and manipulating text and data, other skills include composing, editing, enunciating, electronic handwriting, and scanning. Educators must provide instruction on a variety of input technologies for successful academic, professional, and personal applications.

Note: Choose this link to policy statement #73.

Business Educators constitute the largest and most effective technology training organization in North America; it has now broadened its definition of what constitutes input technologies training. The new definition goes beyond keyboarding and mouse clicking to include speech recognition, handwriting recognition, and other viable input options. All of your colleagues and administrators MUST read the entire policy statement. The policy asks Business Education teachers to “...take the lead in using, teaching, and integrating computer-input technologies into the curriculum." Please take the time to share the entire document.

ATTACKING THE INJURY PROBLEM

The NBEA Policies Commission also took a powerful position on the injury prevention issue with the following statement:

"We believe that students must be made aware of the health benefits of an integrated approach to text and data input. Research indicates that carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive strain injuries may be linked to occupations that require repetitive use of the hands (i.e., keyboarding and mouse operations). Varying the use of computer-input technologies reduces the risk of repetitive motion injuries."

Using a computer should not be painful! Varying the input-technologies routine will help reduce injuries for millions of computer users. Teaching students the gamut of technology options will give them the alternative skills they need should they experience discomfort, dysfunction, and difficulties. Learning input alternatives at an early age can mitigate the negative impact that any one technology alone may cause.

And the software can be helpful regardless of age. In an effort to rehabilitate after a recent carpal tunnel operation, my own intrepid mother, age 81, is using Dragon to do her church computer work. A former home economics instructor, her carpal tunnel is the result of years of sewing, needlepoint, and gardening. Albeit, without Dragon, computer use would have been rendered an impossibility.

In terms of injury prevention, speech recognition is the most important of these new tools. While it doesn't take a great deal of time to teach speech recognition effectively, it is far from an easy teach. The future of millions of hands, wrists, shoulders, and necks depend upon our ability to pass along three essential speech recognition skills.

First, speech requires basic reading skills. Sadly, all too many students can’t read aloud effectively. This means the Business teacher of the future will also be a part-time reading coach.

Second, speech requires enunciation skills. The future Business Education instructor will need to go back to something similar to the dictation curriculum popular in the 1970s.

Third, speech requires the ability to compose at speaking rates over 140 words per minute. The Business Education instructor must be grounded in technical writing, composition, and communication skills.

THE TIDE HAS TURNED

It’s no longer an uphill battle to convince instructors of the value of teaching speech recognition. For that matter, handwriting recognition is now receiving general acceptance. At the WBITE conference, in my first session, a third of the participants were already teaching Dragon! In addition, this year I have noticed a huge change in the knowledge level and attitudes of the average person on the street. More and more people now perceive speech recognition as an anecdote to the daily grind of repetitive typing. Everywhere I go someone already knows about Dragon, ViaVoice, or Microsoft speech. I see Tablet PCs in airports, in offices, and at meetings. Colleagues are using their speech software to complete their graduate writing. One of our Business Education colleagues from Missouri was even invited to Finland to conduct seminars on speech recognition!

Students we have trained at Farrer Middle School are entering college already and are finding their community college and university programs accepting of speech recognition, handwriting recognition, and of mobile Tablet PCs, as indicated in an article by Janet Ray Dupree in U.S. News & World Report (5/12/03).

"And what college student, late on a 2,000-word essay, wouldn't rather talk than type? Last semester Seton Hall University in New Jersey, in an effort to keep undergraduates on the cutting edge, started distributing IBM ViaVoice software to its entire freshman class. Says Chief information Officer Stephan Landry, 'They’re the ones who will carry it into the business world. They're the ones who will make all of us want this and need this."

TEACHING EVERYONE? NO PROBLEM

I believe we hit a kind of "critical mass" of acceptance last year sometime without really knowing it. I don't know how it is in your area, but I am getting fewer and fewer "Why" questions. I am now getting mostly "How" questions. The "should we" has given way to the "how do we" mindset -- and changing the mindset is a critical part of the battle.
But now the big job begins. By 2009, we must teach 8 million teachers and support staff and 80 million students how to effectively use speech and handwriting recognition (along with the rest of the input technologies).

For Business educators, this is nothing new. After the personal computer came out in the early 1980s, Business instructors trained an entire generation of students to use personal computers, word processing, and a host of other communications tools before the end of that decade. North America became computer literate as a direct result of Business Education efforts in the 1980s.
This is familiar ground and a familiar responsibility.

What we teach and how we teach it is important. Our efforts have lasting effect. NBEA’s leadership is critical to the productivity and health of our students and of our economy.