Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium Student & Teacher Education Review

Comments

1. Victor Lajeunesse says

   November 8, 2010 at 4:47 pm

   Hello,

   I would just like to add that DNS Premium v11 Student / Teacher can indeed be purchased in Canada. I work for Micromputer Science Centre, a vendor of assistive technology, and we sell this product for #110.00 $Cdn (+ tax).

   If you have any questions regarding this please feel free to contact me via email at [email protected].

   Likewise if you have any questions regarding other assistive technology I would be happy to offer my input!

   Thank you!
   Victor.

   Reply

   • Mr Kuroneko says

     March 3, 2011 at 9:03 pm

     Hi Victor – we didn’t have a problem buying the student / teacher version in Canada. (Nuance ships to Canada.) In the end, we canceled our order with Nuance because we found a great deal on the premium wireless version. Do you offer a return policy on unopened software similar to the big box stores (i.e. Futureshop / Best Buy)

     Reply

2. Victor Lajeunesse says

   November 8, 2010 at 4:50 pm

   Sorry, the company name is Microcomputer Science Centre (not Micromputer 😉

   Thanks,
   Victor

   Reply

3. Ricardo Feldan says

   December 17, 2010 at 5:04 pm

   FYI…If you are considering the Dragon Home Edition because of its price ($75 Xmas Special on Nuance website), be advised that it cannot be upgraded in the future. You would have to purchase a new copy. This was advice I received from a sales rep at Nuance.

   Reply

   • Mr Kuroneko says

     March 3, 2011 at 8:57 pm

     Hey Ricardo – thanks alot for this tip.

     Reply

4. Belgin says

   October 21, 2011 at 10:02 pm

   hey everyone, general question…I’m a university student do you think this product be useful for lectures?

   Reply

   • Mr Kuroneko says

     October 23, 2011 at 8:18 pm

     If you mean, do I think Dragon NaturallySpeaking would be good to transcribe what the professor says during a lecture, then absolutely not.

     You can use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to talk to a computer and to have the computer “write” down what you say, but it requires training on your part. (You need to correct mistakes so that the software can learn what you sound like and how you speak.) Although it’s pretty accurate out-of-the-box, Dragon NaturallySpeaking works best in a quiet room (or with a very good audio recording). I doubt you’d get that in a university lecture.

     If I was a university student again, I’d use my iPad and something like the audionote app which lets you take notes (as well as record your professor at the same time.) That way, when you’re looking at your notes, if you click on a specific word, the app will play back that specific part of the lecture. The app can’t transcribe what the professor is saying, but it’s a pretty handy tool to find certain sections from a recording (instead of fast-forwarding and trying to find it yourself.) http://blog.classroomteacher.ca/1205/notes-ipad-observations-students-classroom/#audionote

     Good luck finding something.

     Reply

5. Robert Mason says

   November 27, 2011 at 5:43 pm

   Is holiday version 10.5 able to access Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird E-Mail out of the Box?
   What is your policy regarding returns, is open box allowed?

   Reply

   • Mr Kuroneko says

     November 28, 2011 at 11:56 pm

     Hi Robert,

     I’m not sure what you mean by holiday version 10.5. Here is some support information about which applications are compatible with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.

     Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5 only has basic text control when using Mozilla Firefox 8. Internet Explorer 9 has full text control in some places (like the URL address bar), but when you’re typing on some webpages – like this reply to comment field on this WordPress blog – you only get basic text control. (Basic Text Control basically means you need to use the little dictation box in Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5 to dictate words and commands using a tiny little pop-up window. When you finish, yet to say or click “transfer” for Dragon to process your command.

     You have to contact Nuance directly about their return policy. Good luck.

     Reply

6. Dennis D. says

   December 21, 2011 at 10:16 am

   I am terrible at typing and am about ready to begin
   putting together a book.What speech program will
   work best for putting the words to paper as a rough draft before editing?I don’t want to purchase the wrong program and I see alot on Ebay for very
   reasonable prices???Thanks for any help…

   Reply

   • Mr Kuroneko says

     December 22, 2011 at 8:17 pm

     Hey Dennis, I can’t really speak about other speech recognition solutions. After using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 for a year (and dictating 34,000 words), overall it had a word recognition accuracy of 97%. In other words, you need to correct 3 word mistakes for every 100 words that you dictate. Having said that, even as a brand new user (i.e. using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 straight out of the box) – it also got a word recognition accuracy around 97%. Now, this doesn’t include capitalization or punctuation errors, but if you learn to speak your punctation (i.e. saying ‘period’, ‘new paragraph’, etc) you can reduce the number of punctuation / capitalization errors.

     Good luck with your buying decision.

     Reply

7. GK says

   December 30, 2011 at 10:44 pm

   OK, I’m confused on the “13 and older” vs “K-12” matter. I’m friends with a family who have a 10-year-old son. Everyone at his school — the teachers, the learning specialists, the principal — says he really needs to be able to use Dragon. He has documented disability.

   Does anyone have any experience with trying to get Nuance to allow under-13 students (in a K-12 school) to use the Student edition?

   Or could the school purchase it for him?

   Reply

   • Mr Kuroneko says

     December 31, 2011 at 5:26 pm

     Hi GK,

     Just get your son’s teacher to write a letter on school letterhead stating that your child attends a public (or private) elementary school.

     I agree – the Terms and Conditions are confusing because of the “13 and older” part. A lot of educational websites require users to be 13 years or older because of privacy legislation. Sometimes you can still sign up for accounts with parental consent. (For example, Prezi allows students under 13 to sign up with parental consent.)

     Looking at the Dragon Naturally Speaking website, it looks like any student enrolled in a qualifying (i.e. public or private) K-12 school can get the student version.

     Looking near the bottom of the Education Validation Terms and Conditions page, it seems like students under 18 years old simply have to get a teacher to write a note on school letterhead stating that your child is a student at the qualifying school (i.e. a public or private primary, secondary school) – see #3 under “How to validate your education status.”

     If you also look on the North America Academic Eligibility definition page, under 1c. Acceptable forms of identification (for Individuals), it says the following:

     For K-12 students only: when the above listed forms of identification is not available, an official letter from a teacher at the accredited K12 institution verifying the student’s right to order software at academic prices

     All sales are final for the student discounted version of Dragon Naturally Speaking so if you’re a little bit nervous about the 13 years old part, click on that “chat now” pop up window when you’re on the Nuance website, or you can contact Nuance directly from this page.

     Hope this helps!

     Reply

8. sherrill says

   January 2, 2012 at 12:33 am

   Does Dragon work for languages other than English? I need to use it for Spanish–will it work???

   Reply

   • Mr Kuroneko says

     January 2, 2012 at 1:01 am

     Hi Sherrill,

     Here’s the link to Dragon Naturally Speaking Premium Spanish. The Premium version is available as an electronic download so you can use it right away. Good luck.

     Cheers, Kisu

     Reply

9. Justin says

   January 3, 2012 at 9:39 am

   If I am 18, but am enrolled in 12th grade do I need the letter from my teacher?

   Reply

   • Mr Kuroneko says

     January 3, 2012 at 4:56 pm

     Hi Justin, Nuance’s Education Validation webpage, students only have to send in a letter from the school if they are under 18 years old. You’ll still need to prove you’re a student by either using a school email account or a student photo ID card with name, date / registration. If you’re still unsure, you could also contact Nuance customer service.

     You will be required to submit one or more of the following:
     A valid email address that is associated with your accredited education institution.
     A valid, current student / teacher photo ID card that includes name and date / registration card.
     Letter or Correspondence* from academic institution confirming EDU status. Confirmation must be on letterhead paper and signed by a lecturer / teacher if you are a student** or by colleague (including contact details) if you are a lecturer / teacher.

     * Correspondance can be letter from school addressed to pupil at home address.
     ** Students under 18 are required to complete No 3 as form of validation.

     Reply

10. Matt says

    January 12, 2012 at 8:20 pm

    Hi. You mentioned that you use DNS to grade student papers. Can you tell more about how you do that? This is the main reason I purchased the program, but I cannot figure out a way to efficiently edit essays

    Thanks!

    Reply

    • Mr Kuroneko says

      January 12, 2012 at 9:54 pm

      Hi Matt, here’s what I do when I’m marking student papers using Dragon Naturally Speaking. (I actually do a mix of different things, but whether it’s more efficient for you to use Dragon Naturally Speaking than typing or writing out your comments really depends on how quickly you type. Lately, I’ve been experimenting with typing my written feedback using Word and Breevy instead of speaking using Dragon Naturally Speaking, but I type around 93 words per minute.)

      Sometimes if I have an electronic copy of their essay, then I leave my comments directly into the document at the bottom. Sometimes I simply create a Word document with a class list and simply add my comments in there. (Then when I print off the comments, I set it so each student’s comments are on a separate page. I suppose you could also cut the comments into strips. Sometimes I create a generic template form in Word with their names / class / date and then run the mail merge wizard to create a Word document that has each student on a separate page with their name and the rubric. That way, I’m simply dictating in my feedback, instead of worrying about the layout. )

      I find Dragon Naturally Speaking really only worth it for me when I’m providing longer feedback (i.e. a paragraph about what they did well, a paragraph about mistakes they made, and a paragraph about how they should improve) – If I’m marking up their essay with corrections or simply writing a one sentence, “nice job, but don’t forget to proofread your work” kind of comment, then it’s obviously easier to use an actual pen (although lately, I’ve been playing with digital ink using note taking apps on my iPad.)

      I never dictate directly into Microsoft Word (or Internet Explorer) if I can avoid it. I find that Dragon Naturally Speaking is most accurate when I use either the dictation box or DragonPad. If I’m using dictation box, I always copy the text in the dictation box before clicking transfer because if you’ve accidentally clicked elsewhere (i.e. the URL bar of a web browser,) then I find sometimes Dragon doesn’t insert my dictation where I expect it to and since the dictation box has automatically closed, I’ve lost my work. If that happens, I can just paste in what I just wrote. If I’m using DragonPad, then I make sure that I save (Ctrl+S) relatively frequently. DragonPad doesn’t auto save like Word or Google Docs, so I’ve lost work before.

      Depending on how powerful your computer is, you might want to turn off a lot of programs running in the background (i.e. Dropbox.) Not so much a problem on my current computer, but definitely a problem on the old computer. Dragon Naturally Speaking seems to work better on more powerful computers. I remember using it on a netbook and being frustrated with how long it took for the spinning symbol to figure out what I was saying. Plus, a stronger computer definetely means a more accurate Dragon Naturally Speaking.

      Make sure you’re in a completely quiet room. Also make sure to “check microphone” any time you start. (It seems to improve accuracy.)

      Add all of your student names (school name, etc) into the Vocabulary editor (and train Dragon on the pronunciation of the names as well.) Click on Vocabulary > Import List of Words or Phrases. (Sometimes if I have students with the same name, I will train it with the last name as well. For example, “Chris T.” and “Chris B.”)

      I use Dragon Naturally Speaking with a mix of voice and keyboard / mouse controls. (The only commands I use are things like “bold that”, “cap that”, “correct that.” I never select things with my voice.) So, for example, I’ll dictate something, and then if Dragon Naturally Speaking has made a mistake, I’ll highlight the word with the mouse and then say “correct that.” – I’ve also set up Tools > options > correction > automatic playback on correction so that I can hear what I said (without having to click play that back.) – Sometimes Dragon will play back what I said, and sometimes, it can’t.

      Under Tools > Autoformatting options, I’ve turned on “automatically add commas and periods.” – It’s usually pretty accurate.

      When I’m in the correction box / spelling window, and I’m trying to correct a word, I usually turn the microphone off (by hitting the + plus key on the number pad.) I find it seems to speed up Dragon Naturally Speaking a lot. For whatever reason, if I try to say my correction in that window, it spends a lot of time trying to figure out what I say. It’s usually easier for me to just type in my correction.

      When I’m in that correction box, there’s usually a button to train the word. I’ve tried to train words that way, but it never seems to work. Dragon Naturally Speaking works better for me when I click on the Dragon bar at the top > Vocabulary > Add New Word or Phrase.

      I run Launch Accuracy Tuning after ever post (on this blog) and once I’ve finished marking an entire assignment to try to get Dragon Naturally Speaking to work better for me. After using it for a year – I got around 97% word recognition accuracy when I got it out of the box, and a year later, I’m still around the same recognition rate. Makes me wonder if it’s really worth my time training Dragon Naturally Speaking.

      If I’m putting in the same comment over and over again, I will add it as a command. Click on Tools > Add New Command. So for example, I might have MyCommand Name as my initials or a unique phrase and then in the content, I paste in my generic comment. Something like this: (Make sure you train the MyCommand Name or it doesn’t work as well.)

      MyCommand Name: KK homonym
      Content: Next time, I’d like you to watch out for homonym spelling errors. Homonyms are words that sound similar but mean different things. For example, wear / where / we’re / were or too / two / to or your / you’re.

      Then when I’m giving feedback to my student, I would simply say “KK homonym” and my comment would appear. Then I hit the +plus key and go and modify anything that I need to. (i.e. change the generic example of homonyms to the mistakes that the student made.)

      I usually turn off the microphone with a keyboard shortcut (+ plus key on the numberpad) – so that Dragon Naturally Speaking doesn’t accidentally insert things. (I’ve given back student feedback and there have been wierd things in my comments.)

      Make sure you speaking in longer natural phrases. I usually speak my punctuation. For example:

      Wow period I’m really impressed with how much you’ve improved since your last assignment period In particular comma I really like how you focused on using paragraphing to separate your ideas and organize your thoughts period new paragraph Next time comma I’d like you to work on focusing on your word choice and your figurative language to really engage the reader period Think about using personification as a tool period For example comma the sky cried at night period

      This is what Dragon Naturally Speaking wrote down:

      Well. I’m really impressed with how much you’ve improved since her last assignment. In particular, I really like how you focus on using paragraphing to separate your ideas and organize your thoughts.

      Next time, I’d like you to work on focusing on your word choice and your figurative language to really engage the reader. Think about using personification as a tool. For example, the sky cried at night.

      There were 3 mistakes out of 68 words in there for an accuracy rate of 95.6%. I tend to get better accuracy on longer passages.

      I keep a list of my custom command commands written on a sheet in front of me.

      Hope that helps. Out of curiosity, what have you been doing with Dragon Naturally Speaking and what kind of accuracy have you been getting?

      Reply

11. Matt says

    January 13, 2012 at 8:24 pm

    Thanks for your amazingly detailed response! Did you dictate that with Dragon? I will respond to your question in greater detail when I have some more experience with DNS. I had Dragon Dictate for a few weeks, , but it never worked as I had hoped it would. So, I returned it. A few days later, I came across a website for a company called KnowBrainer, and I had a conversation with the the owner, who advised me to try DNS.

    Now I have DNS, and I am trying to figure out how to use it. I had hoped to use it it to dictate the comments I make in text boxes that I place in the margins of student papers (I collect them in PDF form). But DNS does not play well with PDFs, and the program I am experimenting with (BluBeam) is tricky to figure out.

    Thus, I am not completely sure how I am going to use DNS. All I can think of now is that the time is running out on my 30 day trial!

    I would love to hear more from you or your readers about how they use DNS. I think there is great potential, but I am unsure of how to tap into it.

    Reply

    • Mr Kuroneko says

      January 13, 2012 at 9:24 pm

      Hi Matt, I typed the comment this time and only dictated the small portion towards the end in the dictation box. (In general, I only dictate the drafts of the blog posts on this site and then use a keyboard to edit and modify formatting for SEO.)

      BlueBeam PDF looks interesting (I’m watching the video now.) – I’m always looking for ways to streamline my own marking process so being able to mark up text on the PC is interesting. (Usually I use my iPad and that’s a little cumbersome.)

      I’m not surprised that Dragon Naturally Speaking doesn’t play well with PDFs. If you don’t get that green checkmark in the dragonbar, Dragon Naturally Speaking really doesn’t work well at all. (Actually, to be perfectly honest, I find it only works best (in terms of speed and accuracy) in it’s native dictation box and DragonPad.)

      When you create the text boxes in the margins, can you not simply click in your textbox on BlueBeam, and then have Dragon Naturally Speaking open up a side dictation box window for you to dictate in, and then transfer your comment into BlueBeam? The Revu video says that BlueBeam has voice recognition as well, so I’m not sure whether that would conflict with Dragon. My money would be that Dragon Naturally Speaking is more accurate in terms of word recognition since that’s their core product, (as opposed to an add-on feature in BlueBeam PDF Revu.)

      Maybe I’ll see if there’s a trial version of the Bluebeam PDF Revu software to check out how to make it more efficient with Dragon Naturally Speaking.

      Out of curiosity, how do you collect your student work in PDF form? Are they printing their documents as home as PDFs and submitting that electronically to you, or are they handing in a paper copy of their work and then you’re bulk scanning it into a PDF through a photocopier or some other device. My problem is that students submit a word document, but I couldn’t find an easy way to batch convert them into PDFs with a filename stamp in the footer. What do you do? Thanks for your feedback. Cheers, Kisu.

      Reply

12. Mark says

    January 14, 2012 at 6:32 am

    I am really bad at writing notes in a lecture type class. I was wondering if using a digital recorder and then having Dragon Naturally Speaking write it out. Would this work? I know I would have to do some editing. Other than that is this program able to reconize other voices and process their words with out messing up the setup I would have?

    Reply

13. Mr Kuroneko says

    January 14, 2012 at 12:10 pm

    Hi Mark, Dragon Naturally Speaking really doesn’t work that way. The license is for a single user and you have to create your own user profile to train Dragon to recognize your voice. It won`t recognize other voices and process their words.

    Even though Dragon Naturally Speaking Premium lets you dictate into a handheld recorder for later transcription, you can’t record other people and then have it magically transcribe their words.

    Also, Dragon Naturally Speaking needs really good quality audio. I imagine the teacher would be far away and so your digital recorder would probably pick up more of the people around you than the teacher.

    I supposed, in theory, if you had good quality – straight from the microphone – recordings of a person, you could train Dragon Naturally Speaking to recognize that person only, but it would have to be a different profile. (In other words, if you did it on the same user profile as your voice, then every correction you made would mess up your own user profile and make Dragon Naturally Speaking more inaccurate.) I’m pretty sure that using the Dragon Naturally Speaking software with more than one person per license is a violation of the licensing terms.

    Good luck.

    Reply

14. Matt says

    January 15, 2012 at 4:55 pm

    Hi again. I’ve been working on a few essays today, and because my trial for BluBeam is over, I started working with One Note. I basically opened a new page and imported the PDFs I needed using the “show as printout” command. Then, I just inserted the cursor in the margin where ever I want to place a note. I dictated into this note, and I found this was pretty accurate. Because I am using an old Toshiba tablet, I use the stylus to circle and point out any mechanical errors. To be sure, it’s not a perfect solution, but I am able to type my comments in the margins using Dragon. Occasionally, I will have to resize the window that the note is in, but this works pretty well. I’m not right to say that my work flow is all that much quicker, but I have always been a very slow grader!

    As for how I collect my papers as PDFs, my students submit their papers through Google Docs, so I just, and download them as PDFs. I then import these into whatever application I am using. When I’m using a Mac, I use the application called PDF Pen Pro. Because I want to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking, however, I have had to dig my Toshiba out, add some more RAM, and refamiliarize myself with Microsoft One Note.

    In any case, this approach to grading papers is amusing me, but I am not sure that it is not creating more work for me then just grading the papers the way I had been doing before. But I will say that dictating to a computer is more accurate than my typing is even on my best day! So, when it comes to writing letters of recommendation, were writing e-mails, using Dragon NaturallySpeaking might work out very well for me.

    Cheers!

    Reply

    • Mr Kuroneko says

      January 15, 2012 at 7:59 pm

      Hey Matt – thanks for the feedback. I agree – sometimes, I think using a computer to provide written feedback is more effective, and then other times, everything goes horribly wrong and I wonder if it just wasn’t easier to do it by hand. I think I spend the same amount of time, but my feedback tends to be longer (and neater) when I use a computer to mark student papers. I think you nailed it on the head – using Dragon NaturallySpeaking works better if your typing isn’t the greatest.

      Thanks for sharing your workflow with One Note. I usually use Google Docs as well, but this past assignment, I have students put their names in the filename, but I forgot to explicitly tell them to write their names in the document as well. It was a headache manually printing the name on each one… still looking for a way to automate adding the filename in the footer.

      Out of curiosity – what version of Dragon Naturally Speaking are you using? Cheers Kisu

      Reply

15. Matt says

    January 15, 2012 at 4:57 pm

    One more thing – I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking to dictate that last bit of writing. You can obviously see where there were some mistakes, but all in all, that wasn’t so bad.

    Reply

16. Gordon Clark says

    January 25, 2012 at 8:01 pm

    I have heard vaguely of Dragon Naturally Speaking. So I have read the article above beginning with the phrase “What is Dragon Naturally Speaking?”

    As I write, I still have no idea from your web-page, what Dragon Naturally Speaking is or does. From what I read, there is no indication as to what its purpose is.

    It rambles on about Star wars, so perhaps it has something to do with the film.

    Gord Clark
    Rockburn, Qué.

    Reply

    • Mr Kuroneko says

      January 25, 2012 at 9:15 pm

      Hi Gord, appreciate the feedback and thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Dragon Naturally Speaking lets you talk to your computer instead of having to type on a keyboard.

      This post grew out of another post to help students and teachers (who already knew what Dragon Naturally Speaking was) to decide if the discounted education version was right for them. I’ll re-organize the information in this post to make things more clear.

      In the mean time, I’ve added a video clip that shows you what Dragon Naturally Speaking does, rather than ramble on about Star Wars. Dragon Naturally Speaking comes in four different editions (Home, Premium, Professional, and Legal) with different features (as seen in this comparison chart.) Cheers, Kisu.

      Reply

17. Gordon Clark says

    January 25, 2012 at 10:10 pm

    It OK – I found out.

    Gord Clark

    Reply

18. megankalu says

    March 12, 2012 at 5:15 pm

    I really need help. I run Liberty High Criteria recorder that we record court room trials. At home I transcribe all the proceedings. I’ve been a court reporter for 32 years and have seen many changes over the years and have transcribed many, many transcripts. A couple of years ago i purchased Dragon N.S. 9.5 and i was just speaking into a mic what i listened to in proceedings verbatum, but then someone told me that I should be able to put the Liberty recordings from the courtroom that i’ve downloaded on my pc and right into my dragon so i just have to turn on the recording and dragon should transcribe the text right from the liberty recording one text. Is this true? OMG it would sure give my hands and voice a break if this can be done. I am aware that some hand held voice recorders will download onto Dragon and it will put it onto text, but can my Liberty system recordings to that?? Any information about this would be greatly, greatly, appreciated.
    Sincerly, Margote

    Reply

    • Mr Kuroneko says

      March 13, 2012 at 1:12 pm

      Hi Margote,

      I’m sorry, but my first guess would be that I don’t that you’ll be able to transcribe court room trials just by running the audio files through Dragon Naturally Speaking. Here’s why:

      Dragon Naturally Speaking 11.5 (Premium, Professional and Legal) all have the option to transcribe audio files. For example, in Dragon Naturally Speaking Premium, I click on Tools > Transcribe Recording > Other source > and then I select the audio file (MP#, WAV, WMA, and a few others) and Dragon Naturally Speaking will type in what’s recorded in the audio file. I can get Dragon Naturally Speaking to transcribe into either the DragonPad text editor or directly into another window (like Microsoft Word.)

      When I googled Liberty High Criteria, it looks like it’s recording different people: http://www.libertyrecording.com/LCR_main.htm

      The problem with Dragon Naturally Speaking software is that it is “speaker dependent” which means it’s trained to recognize your voice. (At least, that’s what the official Nuance FAQ about transcribing audio files says. But, read on…)

      Even though it looks like you have really good, high quality audio recording, I don’t think it would be able to transcribe new voices. Your user profile is trained to recognize your voice whether it’s high-pitched or really deep.

      I know from experience that Dragon Naturally Speaking is pretty good straight-out-of-the-box with little training (i.e. 97.6% accurate with a new user profile) but that new user profile still requires you to go through the initial training setup to get used to your voice.)

      I also know that you don’t have to train the Dragon Naturally Speaking iPad apps – they just work and I assume it’s the same voice recognition software. That makes me wonder if Dragon Naturally Speaking actually would work with different voices. I’ll try out a few things and get back to you.

      (At the very least, I imagine you’ll have to upgrade to version 11.5 from your older version of Dragon Naturally Speaking.)

      Reply

19. Gerald Buller says

    March 31, 2012 at 6:49 pm

    Hi, Iam a Strata Manager and take minutes at council meetings. Iwould really appreciate knowing if there is a digital recorder that would record multiple voices and print it out in a word document?

    Reply

    • Mr Kuroneko says

      March 31, 2012 at 10:46 pm

      Hi Gerald,

      I’m not really sure. I did a quick google search and came up with http://www.savemeeting.com/ (which is a cloud-based service that comes with a freemium and subscription model). I’m going to check it out for a future review, but I wonder how well it would work. Here’s why.

      Dragon Naturally Speaking on the computer is user specific – I get around a 97% to 98% word accuracy rate using the program speaking into a wireless bluetooth headset in a quiet room. With Dragon Naturally Speaking premium (and higher), you can transcribe audio files (i.e. MP3) directly into Microsoft Word. (You’ll need the Premium edition – you can’t transcribe from a handheld recorder / audio file with Dragon Naturally Speaking home edition – comparison chart.) If I try to transcribe an MP3 file of an audiobook using my Dragon Naturally Speaking user profile, the transcription is horrible. (It could be because Harry Potter was read so dramatically, but I think it’s because the user profile is really geared towards my voice.)

      Voice recognition on the iPad (i.e. Dragon Naturally Speaking on the iPhone or iPad using the Dragon Dictation app, or using the iPad 3 dictation feature) will recognize any voice – it’s not user specific and I get between 89% – 93% word accuracy (see review.) The problem is that you couldn’t use Dragon Dictation or your iPad dictation microphone button to record more than a minute before it timed out to transcribe what you were saying.

      http://www.savemeeting.com/ looks like entire meetings can be recorded to their servers – the Freemium version comes with 1,000 recording minutes, but I wonder what the word accuracy is like. I think the key in any voice transcription service is that you’ll need high quality audio and you’ll still have to go through and edit the document to catch all of the machine transcription mistakes. Good luck!

      Reply

20. Brenda says

    July 16, 2012 at 7:15 am

    Has anyone experience of if and how the system works with leaving comments on Blogger. I’ve read it works OK making new posts on Blogger, but I am specifically interested to know if it will apply itself to enabling me to lave comments on other peoples blogs.

    Thanks

    Brenda

    Reply

21. Sherry Wehner says

    July 23, 2013 at 12:34 pm

    Hi, I notice you talk about using Breevy and Dragon. I am having compatibility issues, when I have Dragon running my Breevy doesn’t work correctly. Do you know of any way to resolve this? thanks!

    Reply

    • classroomtechnology says

      July 24, 2013 at 11:23 pm

      Hi Sherry, I didn’t notice a compatibility problem between using Breevy and Dragon Naturally Speaking on my computer, but I’ve never really mixed the two together until replying to your comment right now.

      This is a Breevy abbreviation that I inserted while dictating this comment: (Wed, Jul 24, 2013 – 11:16 PM) and there didn’t seem to be any problem. I’m using Breevy v3.27, Dragon Naturally Speaking premium v12.50.000.065 with a USB headset in Microsoft Word 2010 on Windows 8.

      What kind of compatibility issues are you having? (The two problems I’m having with Dragon Naturally Speaking, aren’t connected to Breevy. I find Dragon Naturally Speaking constantly crashes Google Chrome and Internet Explorer. I also find I have problems when I use the enhanced Bluetooth headset that came with Dragon Naturally Speaking 12.) I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help.

      Reply