First WBITE Vista Speech Recognition Training

It was a fabulous and memorable day. On Saturday, February 17, 2007, I was privileged to teach my first Windows Vista speech recognition teacher training class with the actual shipping version. (Chris and Andy beat me to the punch four months ago at the Washington Business Education Conference with the beta software.)

It was held at the 11-state Western Business and Information Technology Educators (WBITE) conference in Missoula, Montana.

The software and the training materials greatly exceeded expectations. There were 18 participants; seven were experienced Dragon NaturallySpeaking instructors. We started with the tutorial and then went directly to the DigiTools Vista SR training materials. Both the software and the materials got the job done quickly and efficiently.

In my informal polling of the Dragon instructors, I got the impression they all agreed that Windows Vista SR will be much easier to teach. In short, they seemed to really enjoy it. We all noticed that we were passing off the basic techniques far more quickly than with previous SR applications. What's more, Vista speech recognition proved to be very accurate.

Here are the Key takeaways:

1) Windows Vista SR training can be completed much more quickly when compared with previous speech recognition applications. Competent teacher workshops can be conducted comfortably in 3.5 hours (down from 7-12 hours).

2) I’ve been teaching speech recognition courses for over eight years… This was the easiest workshop I have EVER taught because:
a. The tutorial proved to be a much easier way to ease new learners into the software.
b. Experienced Dragon users come up to speed very quickly as a result of the tutorial.
c. The software performed smoothly and accurately.

3) After the tutorial, the teachers worked through the DigiTools speech recognition chapter. While working to the training materials, commands worked quickly and cleanly with many less sticky points than I have ever experienced in the first hour of training. (We had two faulty headsets which were swapped out quickly, and that was the only real hiccup.)

4) The teachers quickly caught on with their timing between commands and dictation.

5) Teachers demonstrated a high level of accuracy right from the start.

6) The error correction techniques -- levels 1, 2, and 3 -- are extremely easy to teach. The error correction system is far less confusing to beginners than previous SR error correction systems. (They loved Microsoft’s implementation of the corrections system and found the "Spell It" option MUCH easier to use.)

7) Teaching the Speech Dictionary options (such as adding new words, editing and deleting newly added words from the dictionary, and creating one-line voice macros) is a piece of cake.

8) The core training materials included 41 pages of practice exercises. After covering the 41 pages, my feeling is that a trained Dragon NaturallySpeaking teacher can immediately teach Vista SR to students as soon as they can get it installed. (New SR teachers should probably practice for a few hours on their own before starting to teach the Vista SR application to students.)

9) Teachers loved the "Show Numbers" option. They also enjoyed using speech in combination with the new Microsoft Word 2007 interface.

We are greatly in debt to David Fuller and his IT team at the College of Technology in Missoula, Montana, and Sue Cheff (President, of the Montana Business and Information Technology Educators Association) and her conference committee for planning the training and installing Windows Vista and Office 2007 for this conference. They took a big risk installing the software so early after its release and seizing the moment to make this historic speech recognition training event possible.

I will post teaching tips and a PowerPoint in the textbook support section at www.karlbarksdale.com/books.html in the days to come that you can use to initiate the instruction process.