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March 2001
Speech recognition software has been presented as a panacea for pupils with writing difficulties, but the reality can be very different! While there are a few schools where speech recognition has been used with pupils with great success, there are many more where it has been tried and quickly abandoned.
This project aims to investigate how the introduction and use of speech recognition by pupils with SEN can be made to work. It is being funded by the Scottish Executive Education Department Special Educational Needs Innovation Grants Programme.
The main outcome of the project will be a resource pack entitled Guidelines on Choosing and Introducing Speech Recognition Systems in Schools which will be made available, free of charge, to all secondary schools in Scotland at the end of the project. The pack will include:
- guidance on identifying pupils who might benefit from speech recognition;
- technical hints and tips on installing and operating the systems;
- Lesson Plans, with exercises, for introducing speech recognition to pupils;
- advice on management of speech recognition systems in schools.
The CALL Centre will be working with a number of secondary schools in different parts of the country, piloting initial draft copies of the materials and looking at the various issues that arise.
Draft copies of the training materials and comprehensive information on speech recognition will be available for downloading from the CALL Centre web site from the end of December. Schools across Scotland are welcome to use the materials, but we would be grateful for feedback on how useful they have been.
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