The New Dragon, NaturallySpeaking

I received a new piece of software for Christmas. This new piece of software is known as the premium version of Dragon, NaturallySpeaking. It converts "NaturallySpeaking" words to Text. It will take some time to learn how to operate this software. The most challenging thing is changing from your inner voice to a spoken voice to text. That is to say when you are writing it is much easier for you to bang on the keys to put your thoughts into words this this software requires you to speak your thoughts out loud in order to convert your thoughts and text. The other thought that occurs to me about how challenging it is going to be to learn how to use this software is how to make changes or corrections as needed quickly and efficiently. It will also be a learning curve on where to place proper punctuation marks. For someone that doesn't time this seems like a quick and easy fix although I may find myself rereading and correcting grammar for a much longer period of time, etc. when I get on a roll I'll be able to use the review check spell. In either case the need for better proof reading will be necessary. In the short time that I had been writing this page it has become readily apparent to me that my inner speech is different than mine however speak or spoken words. It's funny I had an idea that speaking naturally would be as easy as well speaking naturally and yet I find myself somewhat in an unnatural state by speaking out loud trying to write a simple blog post. I will have to practice practice practice until I dictate a paper in a relatively short amount of time as you can see many of the sentences or statements that I have made in this page, is simply that practice. In fact many people may become weary from reading these practice posts. I will say this NaturallySpeaking software learns very quickly my somewhat discernible dialect. I was given the option to select southern US as a dialect option during initialization. It is also a little difficult to read what you have spoken while you are speaking. Given the number of words on this post it would have taken me much longer to type. I'm not sure how others will react around me while I'm speaking out loud writing a paper. Many may be confused and think I am speaking to them, they may even answer or try to enter the conversation. In many respects dictation is very similar to a conversation you would have with your computer. As with anything new the more you use it the more efficient you will become using it. My speaking grammar may even improve, because every word I say will be printed in front of me to read. I struggle with speaking habits that are often not grammatically correct. As a new teacher speaking to your student with proper usage of grammar is absolutely imperative. There is no substitute for leading by example. Students will and are keenly aware hypocrites, that is to say the old proverb "do as I say, not as I do," will not be well received by students. Every chance they get they will point out your improper usage as a chance to correct you in the same way that you may or have corrected their papers. For most of them it is a way of holding you to the same standard you hold them. I think I will like this new software the more I use it. My next post will likely be about the Thanksgiving cruise.