Nuance - I Speak Dragon

dragonstories2011 Posted: 06-17-2011 12:07 AM

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I am a college professor.  Sometime ago someone asked me what “professing” was all about. I replied, “I read, talk, and listen…..a lot”.

Basically I work with words. The words come from many places—from student papers, presentations, and exams; in books, articles, and webpages; at meetings with colleagues and students; and in messages, emails, announcements, phone calls, and more emails. Not only am I a consumer, I am a producer of words—I am a lecturer, grader, writer, colleague, and counselor. And I write lots of emails!

Since words are the primary means of exchange in my work, I have had to find a more efficient way of managing them because there are just too many of them and I have often become overwhelmed with the amount of them in the tasks that I must routinely complete.

A year or so ago I received an email advertisement from an online retailer. Down near the bottom of the ad was a description of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10.0. When I first became a professor, I had heard that speech recognition software was used by our special education students. But, at the time, I did not imagine how Dragon could help me. After reading the ad, I had a thought—“maybe this can help me”.

Fast forward to the end of this Spring 2011 semester—I can honestly state that Dragon has made a significant positive impact in my work. It has helped me manage all of these words and become much more efficient. Below are the most important ways Dragon has helped me do my work:

·         Writing lecture notes—I dictate them because I find that I can get them done more quickly and thoroughly, which a bonus since I am usually writing them just before class!

·         Grading student papers and exams—Dragon allows me a faster turn-around time and to provide much, much more feedback, which my students appreciate.

·         Taking notes as I read resources for my research—I have used Dragon to create an annotated bibliography for my research and writing; I will also use it to write my first submission which I intend to publish next year.

·         Communications with students and colleagues—I have transcribed notes for meetings, written emails and created announcements and memos. My colleagues have asked me, “How do you get all this work done?” I have told them about Dragon. They are suitably impressed!

I have some future plans for Dragon, including:

·         Lecture capture—I will be able to post my lectures for my students

·         Documenting student research meetings and small group discussions

·         Creating captions for online counseling videos

·         Writing a blog for my Positive Psychology class—tentatively titled, “Hopper is Gettin’ Happy”

I hope that in this testimonial you have come to realize just how much that Dragon NaturallySpeaking has allowed me to become a more efficient and effective professor. Thank you for creating such a powerful tool for working with words.

Cheers.

Dr. Mark Hopper

Associate Professor of Psychology

Loras College

Dubuque, Iowa