I really enjoyed reading James’ post for Task 3 – Voice to Text. I didn’t do this task as part of my assignments so I was curious to see what the task was about and how others approached it. I also have not heard of Speechnotes before so I will definitely check it out.
Your transcript is a great example of how speech-to-text shows the deep differences between spoken and written language. As you point out, what looks “wrong” on the page is actually characteristic of orality: spontaneity, repetition, fluid syntax, and meaning shaped through sound rather than visual structure.
Ong reminds us that oral communication relies on memory, rhythm, and immediacy, while writing imposes distance, fixity, and the need for explicit punctuation. Your experience shows how those oral features become visible only when technologies try to force them into a written form.
I also appreciated your reflection on externalized memory. Your observation that the phone has become an extension of your cognition speaks directly to Postman’s argument that new technologies redefine what skills we value. Whether memory “matters less” isn’t simply a personal stance—it reflects a larger cultural shift in how we store, retrieve, and trust information.
Finally, your discussion of teaching and enunciation highlights another key theme: that literacy practices are socially shaped. The fact that your “oral text” feels right when spoken but chaotic when typed captures the core tension between orality and literacy that we’ve examined in ETEC 540.
Great post and thank you for sharing!
AI Disclaimer: ChatGPT was used to generate ideas and connections to this course’s themes. I also used it for editing and grammar checking.
References
Ong, W.J. (2002). Chapter 1: The orality of language. In Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word (pp. 5-16). Routledge. (Original work published 1982).
OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/
Postman, N. (2011). Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology. Knopf Doubleday Publishing. (Original work published 1992)