“Educators should not hesitate to integrate technology features into instruction for students who struggle with academic tasks. These approaches can support learning by building literacy and language skills and independence…Use speech recognition technology to help struggling writers and spellers get their ideas on paper. The immediacy of the dictation process reinforces the vocabulary and use of writing conventions and punctuation…If you haven’t tried speech recognition software lately, you’ll find vastly improved capabilities, reduced training requirements and better microphones available at very reasonable costs.“

~ from “Research Matters/Technology to Help Struggling Students” by Heidi Pacuilla and Steve Fleischman, Educational Leadership, Feb. 2006, Volume 63, Number 5

I have been playing around with speech recognition software for awhile now. I think it has made significant improvements over the years. As an educator, my interest is of course, how this ICT tool can be used for education.

My impression is that using the software, students can be forced to be more conscious of how they pronounced words. This is good especially for non-native speakers. They can learn another language by practicing their reading and speaking using this software. The software will translate their speech into text. For example, an Indonesian student can speak or read in English and the software will translate it into text. The higher the accuracy of the text, I believe the better is their pronunciation because the software does require some close proximity in the vocalization to the correct pronunciation of words for the speech recognition software to be able to translate to text.

Using such speech recognition also means that students who can see speak their thoughts to the computer and have it on text. Spelling doesn’t become an issue anymore. I believe even poor spellers will be able to decode what they have converted to text. This can only improve their reading skills.

Of course, such software will be a boon for the physically handicapped as it allows them to put their thoughts down electronically. More importantly, with the increasing use of the web for the building of communities and socializing, it allows the handicapped to participate fully with everyone. Almost all the barriers to a social life is removed. It makes them a part of any community they chose to belong.

Speech recognition software is definitely something to look into for ICT for education. However, it would be useful I think to watch this video, to help you ascertain the kind of hardware and software that would help you use speech recognition software successfully.

Ok I know I mentioned Indonesian education in the header above but really this article is relevant for any school out there that does not have English as its main medium of instruction.

Google has introduced Google Translate translation service. It is free. Teachers and students can now have better access to websites for educational use. Students will find it easier to use the massive resources of the Web for their research work. Also for example, where once to design a WebQuest, a teacher will have difficulty finding web resources in their native languages, this hurdle can largely be overcome with Google Translate. Though not perfect, I think it can assist students and teachers to overcome much of the language barrier.

Anyway, at the very least no one can insult me (in written form anyway) in French and get away with it.  By the way. what are those French lines in the Beatles’ “Michelle”?

Mulla Nasrudin went to see a rich man.

‘Give me some money.’

‘Why?’

‘I want to buy…an elephant.’

‘If you have no money, you can’t afford to keep an elephant.’

‘I came here’, said Nasrudin, ‘to get money, not advice.’

~ from The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin by Idries Shah

That’s a funny tale that I have found to be true at different levels in relation to my experience as a consultant to schools.

I have come across schools trying to embark on ambitious projects that were currently beyond their means. For example, schools in Indonesia are scrambling to offer IGCSE to their students. Many do so without knowing fully the implications of such a move. For starters, doing the IGCSE means that the language of instruction has to shift to the English language. Most Indonesian schools simply do not have the teachers who can offer this prerequisite. I hope Indonesians reading this will not find this to be an attempt at disparaging their abilities. I have met many great Indonesian teachers. But all too often a TOEFL score of 500 is taken as an acceptable level of English language mastery for teachers. But surely, that is inadequate for those who want to use it as a language of instruction. Surely this is a serious hurdle that has to be overcome before trying to get on board the IGCSE train? Some schools have resorted to importing teaching staff from English-speaking countries like the Philippines and Singapore. But they are a lot more costly than Indonesian teachers and I will not advocate for, among other reasons, it will take away much needed jobs for the Indonesians. This has led to the “token native-speaker” in many such schools.

I also like that tale narrated above because when the Mulla was caught out, he seems to hesitate as he knew that he didn’t have a good reason to be given money. Then he came up with an excuse that he wanted to buy an elephant! This again is like how some schools behave. They need a marketing ploy to get the students, so they quickly jump on the first thing that perhaps comes to their mind, elephant-sized projects like the IGCSE.

Sadly, his concluding statement has a lot of truth about the situation with some schools. To give an example (and at the risk of sounding as if schools must accept the advise of those they consult), schools still go ahead with the IGCSE despite being advised not to do so by their consultants. So instead of ‘I came here to get money, not advice,’ what you get is the equivalent of ‘I came here to get IGCSE from you, not advice’. Of course if they seek the advice of the salesmen, they will encourage you to buy the elephant!

Think about it. There is much to learn from Mulla Nasrudin. If you like to read more similar tales from Mulla Nasrudin, click on the elephant.