Dragon Voice Recognition

During the last holiday season I had been frantically searching for gifts for my loved ones when I came across this commercial on television. 

 After watching the commercial for a couple minutes I was completely fascinated with all that this new computer program had to offer. Reminded of the telephonic assistant on the iPhone 4s, Siri, I was amazed that a computer program was able to open programs, applications, web browsers, as well as many other computer features. Not only that, but this program also writes down dictated speech (about 160 words per minute) and follows directions to modify text (such as bold, underline, delete, etc). The commercial expresses how writing writing papers can be done with ease and how research can be done in a flash just by telling dragon what to do.

I was instantly inspired at the conclusion of the video as to how this program can be used in the classroom. Clearly it can help students with special needs by accommodating the writing process and facilitating an arduous task. Additionally, the program can be used in any classroom due to the fact that all classes require written work as well as some level of research.

Furthermore, this semester my Commercial Italian class was issued iPads to aid our learning of the Italian business world. I was astonished when one of the required applications for the iPad was Dragon due to the fact that the program that usually runs for over $100 was easily downloaded through the iTunes store for free! Upon downloading the application I set the program to Italian (as there is a large spectrum of languages offered) and began to use the program with great frequency. Dragon allows the class to write a Curriculum Vitae, cover letters, itineraries, and other documents with ease. However, I feel that the most powerful use of the application is the speaking itself. This program forces one to improve pronunciation through practice as well as trial and error. In Italian, there are many words where the modification of a single letter can change the meaning of a word completely. With this program one can practice pronunciation and ensure that they are dictating correctly. Overall, I feel that this tool is beneficial to Italian classes of any level and hope to be able to use it in the future!