My Own Voice to Text
So yesterday was my daughter’s 4th birthday. I can’t believe that she is four! she wanted a rainbow cake and we decided to have a special Mama daughter date day. we had so many presents that she woke up to, we walked down the stairs and she had a huge smile on her face as she saw all the balloons and presents that were on the table. she enjoyed playing with them in the morning and then we went to a very special indoor playground and she had a blast! after the playground we went to a restaurant and she ordered something chocolatey. chocolate is her favorite! we enjoyed a chocolate rainbow birthday cake as per her request. she really wanted a pinata this year, but we did not have one. but I made a pinata cake, were you cut open the cake and all the candy and yummy goody stuff Falls out. she was pretty happy with that. I think overall it was a great birthday, it was our first birthday in Canada, for my husband and I it was a little bit sad, as we haven’t met so many people yet. so this was her first birthday that we didn’t have any family or friends around. but I am glad that I was able to take the day off and just spend it with her and make her feel extra special. new line. it’s a lot of work for a mama when trying to organize a birthday! it was a day off of work for me, but it definitely wasn’t a day off! I was up early setting everything up, trying to make sure her breakfast was ready, and then when my daughter was napping I was decorating and icing the cake and getting her requested macaroni and cheese ready for dinner. I was glad I was able to do it.
Reflection
I used the speech to text feature in google docs. I choose this one specifically, as this is one my students use. I am hoping by using this feature more I might find ways to better support my students or at least gain a greater understanding of the frustrations they may be experiencing..
At first glance it’s obvious how the text deviates, there are no indents, paragraphs and few punctuation markings. When using speech to text, one still must be aware of grammar and punctuation and say them into the microphone. Periods mark the beginning of the sentence, however, the speech to text software does not start each sentence with a capital.
What is “right” from the text is spelling. Overall, the spelling is consistent with few errors, additionally the intended message is relayed. The “wrong” of the text, for me, is the lack of punctuation. This affects how one might read the text, causing one to become “stuck” at certain points (at least I do).
A scripted story would have allowed for more planning and care to be taken with wording, sentence structure and perhaps a better flow. Although I do not imagine much of a difference would have been made, as the major issues were more structural and the speech to text in google docs does not allow for the structural areas of concern.
Oral storytelling lacks the structure of written storytelling. In the story that I shared, I jump from one part to another without transitions and other written conventions you would find in academia. However, this was not the purpose of my storytelling. Similarly to the Schmandt-Besserat et. al. (2007) article, the information I shared on my daughter’s birthday was preserved with some precision. My story may be reinterpreted, but the words will remain the same. Speech to text applications are not perfect, similarly to earlier forms of writing, crude at first, but more precision of these technologies is in the future (hopefully).
Additionally, oral language forgoes many of the rules and standards that written language can represent (Schmandt-Besserat et. al., 2007). This assignment had me thinking of two of my students. One who is not yet literate, and another who is learning the English language. Both have used similar speech to text technologies, and both are frustrated as speech to text often lacks the accuracy without proper enunciation; a skill that often many ML students lack. Much of the frustrations from my two students involve a lack of engagement with the world (Hass, 2012, p.4). One who lacks basic literacy can often become frustrated with how they might engage in activities within the classroom, this is very evident in my classroom.
The speech to text applications are another tool used to communicate with the world, similar to the paper and pencil and tablets and chisels (Hass, 2013). As Gnanadesikan (2011) describes, in the beginning written works were crude and perhaps frustrating for those that could not make sense of what was before them. I see these frustrations with my above-mentioned students. My students’ work began as crude and illegible, but as the school year progressed they have learned ways to use speech to text tools along with others to create meaning of the spoken word, but also the written, and communicate positively with myself and their classmates.
References
Gnanadesikan, A.E. (2011). The first IT revolution. In The writing revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet (pp. 1-12). John Wiley & Sons
Haas, C. (2013). The technology question. In Writing technology: Studies on the materiality of literacy (pp. 3-23). Routledge.
Schmandt-Besserat, D., & Erard, M. (2007). Origins and forms of writing. In C. Bazerman (Ed.), Handbook of research on writing: History, society, school, individual, text (pp. 7-26). Routledge.