Voice-to-Text Entry

Output

After teaching today’s lesson I’m feeling a little bit frustrated because some of the students are not completing their work in a timely manner I’m having to ask for assignment and activities to be turned in over and over again I should mention that I am teaching in Blended program which is a comedy face-to-face and online unfortunately only two of my student, classroom face to face the rest of the of the students do not come in because their parents are not comfortable sending them so it’s really hard for me to track their progress and to see where they are at especially in areas like language arts and math this is going to make it particularly difficult for me to report on their progress at the end of the year which is slowly approaching here as in a little bit worried about what their report cards are going to look like some of them are not getting their their work done when I ask for it I’d like to review the previous day’s material each day before we get started with new lesson I think if parents took their child learning a little bit more seriously it would be easier for me to teach online now I probably should mention that I teach kindergarten and grade 2 online so they’re very young and they require a lot of support from their parents even though I feel like I’m learning a lot teaching online I miss being in the classroom with my students I think that social interaction is really important and this is something that the program is blocking and I’m noticing it a lot as in teaching them online particularly for my kindergarten students who have nots come in all they don’t no classroom rules and expectations are even school rules and expectations I think that they are really going to struggle in grade one and I’m a little worried about them I understand that their parents syringe about our current pandemic and they’re feeling very unsafe sending their child to school but I think that it’s really going to impact their learning being at home now for a year Today I also noticed that when one of my students unmuted her microphone to speak had a lot of background noise music and conversation happening in the background and I just felt that this wasn’t a good environment for her to be n when engaging in her virtual class sessions I often remind students of the importance of working in a quiet space but there are a few that are not able to do so I think that not having face-to-face directions with the students is making me feel as though my job is less rewarding because I’m missing the lightbulb moments and those aha moments that as teachers we the Crave I know that I’ve signed up to be a blended learning teacher for the rest of the year but starting next year I think that I would prefer to return to the classroom. Part of this is because of the age group that I am teaching I find it challenging to engage. Children online I absolutely love using technology to support the learning process but it can be tricky ashley for kindergarten i’ve actually never taught kindergarten before so this is my first time learning a little bit about the curriculum and I’m not used to teaching such I mean basic concepts the alphabet normally I teach grade 2 and 3 in which we learning how to improve sentence writing learning how to write paragraphs I think I’m being a little bit too negative right now there are some perks to being a blended learning one thing that I do really like is being able to teach my students in small groups I think it really helps a separate students out based on their their strengths and their abilities so that part has been really great also there are some students and I should recognize them for completing all of their work and and really paying attention during our virtual class meeting the students asked questions they are prepared and ready to engage they also really enjoy sharing their work with one another because I don’t get to see each other so much so it kind of validates what they’ve done i’m really proud of all of them I know this is a really hard time for all of us so I don’t think I’m getting them enough credit they all attend virtual class meetings witches great because it’s better than them being absent when I first started this program I remember being very confused about what kinds of resources I was going to use to support the learning and I felt that the Met program it’s particularly helpful because I could go back and look at it something such i’ve used in different courses on for example pads I really came in handy at the beginning of this program because I have students upload work there and it was a nice way for them to have a look at each other’s work and and showcase it and this helped build classroom community so I did learn a lot and I am proud of myself for that I’m also proud of them because they’ve learned how to use so many different programs for using things like Raz-Kids epic we are using splash Math and storyjumper and fresh grades and these are just a few of the programs that were using so I know that some parents have also really struggled with the use of Technology but they really improved and I’m proud of them too because I know that they were a little bit afraid at the beginning of this program so I can say that we’ve all come on the way and I want to make sure that I am sharing some of these positives and not just focussing so much on the negative even though my lesson this morning didn’t go so well

Analysis

The voice-to-text application that I used generated multiple errors in grammar. At first glance, I noticed the lack of punctuation in the entire entry. Without punctuation, it can be challenging to pinpoint where one idea ends and the next begins. I found myself rereading parts of the entry in an effort to determine where ideas transitioned. Without punctuation, it would be difficult to capitalize appropriately throughout the text. This entry is also lacking capitalization. Upon closer examination, I found some plural nouns to be in their singular forms. For instance, the word “student” is used instead of “students”. Likewise, the word “assignment” is used instead of “assignments”. This entry also consists of many substitution (“ashley” instead of “especially) and omission mistakes. Some of the words that I remember saying are absent from the text. The words “no” and “know” are homophones. In this entry, one was substituted for the other. In this case, I’m sure the reader could figure out that I meant “know”. However, in certain contexts, this is a mistake that has the potential to change the meaning of the text.

I was surprised to find that the application spelled Raz-Kids (the name of a digital reading platform) correctly with capitalization. I was also surprised to find that many complex words were spelled accurately. I wonder if the speed at which I was speaking influenced the output. Though I said “umm” a lot, the application didn’t input any of them. Overall, I think that an individual reading this entry would be able to gain a general sense of what I am trying to say. However, the specific details have been butchered, making it difficult to understand some of the text. In this text entry, some of the meaning appears to be lost in translation. For example, I was speaking about Padlet, an application that helped build a sense of community in my classroom. The application inputted the word “pad” which would really confuse the reader.

It appears that a variety of factors affect the output of a voice-to-text application including volume, clarity, and pronunciation. As a little experiment, I asked my mom, an English language learner, to speak into the voice-to-text app for a couple of minutes. I noticed that the output was even more difficult to piece together than mine. I think that pronunciation plays an important role in the output that is produced using this kind of technology. I’d also like to note a key difference between an unscripted and scripted story. When telling an unscripted story, it can be easy to lose your train of thought. I think that if I had scripted the story, some of the repetition in this entry would have been absent. It would have been more clear and concise which may have helped readers with the comprehension piece.

There are some notable differences between oral storytelling and written storytelling. Oral storytelling involves a tone of voice and the use of expression which written storytelling may lack or show in a different way (i.e. through punctuation). In the classroom, during oral storytelling we often sit together closely and close our eyes to visualize. My students find great joy in engaging in these lessons. Through experience, I’ve found that young students are often more attentive during oral storytelling in comparison to the times when they are sitting and reading a story. I think that the most notable difference between the two is that oral storytelling doesn’t require an individual to be literate, whereas written storytelling does. A thought that resonates with me from one of our weekly readings, The Writing Revolution by Gnanadesikan (2011) is that “writing represents language, but it outlasts the spoken word (p.3)”. It is suggested that the oldest examples of writing have lasted over five thousand years (Gnanadesikan, 2011). Unlike oral storytelling, a written story is like a record that can be preserved with more certainty.

Gnanadesikan, A. E. (2011).“The First IT Revolution.” In The writing revolution: Cuneiform to the internet (Vol. 25). John Wiley & Sons (pp. 1-10).