Bringing Ideas to Life by Talking, not Typing with Dragon Dictate

Joy Nolting
Summary
Bancroft-Rosalie Community School is requesting $389.97 to purchase three copies of the
Nuance software called Dragon Dictate. This software will provide three students with the
ability to turn their speech into text. They will be able to bring their ideas to life by talking, not
typing.
Organization
Bancroft-Rosalie Community School is currently a D1 competing school. We have about 300
students throughout the Preschool through 12th grades. Within our district, 39.8% of our students
are in poverty and 11.32% of the students receive special education services.
As the Technology Coordinator for the Bancroft-Rosalie School District, I am expected to
maintain the network and the student information system, as well as many other odds and ends
jobs. This is my 9th year at Bancroft-Rosalie and 12th year of teaching. I am currently teaching 2
basic computer application classes to junior high and high school students. As part of my extra
duties, I assist teachers with purchasing and using technology in their classrooms. The seventh
through twelfth grade classes are 1 to 1 to with laptops. I have found that this decision 2 years
ago has been a positive influence on student education. I use part of my day to assist teachers in
their own classrooms with technology on anything from helping students perform a virtual lab to
training teachers to use their interactive white boards. I am also the Junior Class Sponsor. We
work the football concession stands and organize Prom in the spring.
Because of the small size of our school, Mrs. Lori Hermelbracht is the only 7-12 Special
Education Instructor. Her caseload right now contains 13 students. Twelve of these students are
including in a regular education classroom for at least two-thirds or more of the day. Some
corrective reading and math are taught in small group settings with Mrs. Hermelbracht. The
mission of this proposal is to provide three students with transcribing software to assist them
with daily writing tasks while improving the students vocabulary and sentence structure. It will
take away the students concern for spelling or handwriting while giving them more time to work
with the ideas and thoughts within the writing.
Problem Description
The three individuals that will be receiving the Dragon Dictate software were not proficient on
the state writing assessments last year, as 8th grade students. One of these students openly admits
to missing school so that he can put off the writing assignment one more day. The second student
tends be very disruptive when he becomes academically frustrated. Writing and research
assignments cause concerns for classroom instructors. He would rather get kicked out of the
classroom for behavior reasons, than work on the given assignment. Finally the last student in
mind for this software will try as hard as she can to write things down, but it is very difficult to

follow her thoughts. She spends an exhausting amount of time completing a writing assignment.
These three students are struggling with all of their core classes because of their difficulty with
writing.
In Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, the article Lost in the Sea of Ink: How I Survived
the Storm is a personal account of how text-to-speech software as well as other assistive
technology brought this student out of the storm. Co-author Andrew Sheehan shows examples of
his unorganized thoughts and sketchy handwriting in the article. Sheehan described that his mind
was free to think about vocabulary and sentence structure. Spelling and handwriting was not a
concern for him anymore. He quickly gained independence and even began writing for activities
outside of school. I find that with the voice-to-text program, my thinking has evolved to a
higher level because I'm free to express, see, and rework my ideas, stated Sheehan (2000, p. 30).
If we do not find a way for these students to put their thoughts into written word, these students
will have trouble passing the course work in high school and jeopardize graduation and postgraduate plans.
Work Plan
Mrs. Hermelbracht had great success with this program about 10 years ago. When I began
working at Bancroft-Rosalie starting the fall of 2003, the Special Education Department had 3
copies of the Dragon software. To my knowledge, the students that primarily used the software
had recently graduated. Since then, the software has changed and technology has improved.
Mrs. Hermelbracht has been working on writing skills with her students, but needs this assistive
technology to help support them during other classes. Students are allowed to work in the
special education classroom with a Para-educator at any time of the day if excused by a
classroom to teacher. This has helped with the disruptive behavior of the one particular student.
He is still struggling to organize thoughts and write them down. These students at a 9th grade
level do not want to be dependent on a Para-educator. Special Education Instructor, Mrs.
Hermelbracht requested the need for the updated software from Dragon. In an attempt to use the
old software, I quickly found compatibility issues with the current computer systems and the 10year-old software.
With Mrs. Hermelbrachts experience, my technology experience, and assistance from the
Educational Service Unit, we believe that we can train the students and Para-educators to use the
software effectively. Nuance has a well-developed Dragon Dictate online-learning community to
get helpful tips and tricks. There is a forum dedicated specifically to the Dragon Dictate
software.
The new software will be installed on each of the students Mac Books (Sheehan, 2000) that are
provided by the district. They will have access to this software anytime and anywhere. I believe
that this will add to their success. In the past, students have been tied to a desktop computer in
the Special Education classroom. While students are getting familiar with the software they will
be allowed to use the in the Special Education room as a place to work. As they become more
knowledgeable of the program, they can use the software wherever they are comfortable. The
software will be used for all essay or writing assignments while at school or at home.

Impact
As students evolve with this speech recognition technology that Dragon provides, the students
confidence level will increase as well as their independence. In addition, their attitudes towards
the class will become more positive. The behavior and attendance issues that we have been
experiencing will begin to correct themselves. With this assistive technology, these three students
will begin thinking on a higher level and using higher-level vocabulary. Students will be able to
focus on the concepts instead of the daunting task of writing.
Evaluation
The evaluation of success will be slightly different for each of the three students. The goal for
the students with behavioral issue will be fewer office referrals for disruptive behavior. The
student that is absent when writing assignments are given will see improvement in attendance as
a sign of success. The third student will see a decrease in the time spent to complete an
assignment. In all three cases, Mrs. Hermelbracht, parents, and classroom teachers will make
informal observations for discussion at the regular IEP meetings. Each student will take the state
writing assessment during the 11th grade year. These results will be compared to the results of
their own 8th grade writing assessment. The students also participate in Measures of Academic
Progress (MAP) Language testing. This assessment in Language is given yearly. The results of
these tests can be compared from year to year as well.
Budget
Nuances slogan Bringing ideas to life by talking, not typing, is shown on their home page as
well as examples of other software available. Dragon Dictate is a Mac program that allows for
the user to turn their speech into text based from the Windows version, Dragon Naturally
Speaking. The technology built into this software is much more than just speech recognition.
The program will function with all Mac native software such as Pages, iChat, Mail, and Safari as
well as Microsoft software such as Word and Power Point. A demonstration video can be found
on their support pages.
Dragon Dictate can be purchased directly from their website at an educational price of $129.99.
Bancroft-Rosalie will need 3 copies of the software for a total of $389.97.