Innovative Designer

ISTE Standard: Innovative Designer

Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful, or imaginative solutions.

Students know and use a deliberative design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts, or solving authentic problems.
Students select and use digital tools to plan and manage a design process that considers design constraints and calculated risks.
Students develop, test, and refine prototypes as part of a cyclical design process.
Students exhibit a tolerance for ambiguity, perseverance, and the capacity to work with open-ended problems.

For a video playlist explaining this standard, click here!

Relevant ISTE Standards for Educators

Advocate for equitable access to educational technology, digital content, and learning opportunities to meet the diverse needs of all students
Use technology to create, adapt, and personalize learning experiences that foster independent learning and accommodate learner differences and needs.

To0l Overview: Microsoft Office Dictation Feature

Life is full of soul-crushing obligations, and sometimes they can seem cruel and random. If we are mindful, though, we can identify patterns and use those to improve our lives. We cannot always avoid the struggles ahead, but it becomes easier to cope when we learn to recognize some of the images and situations which always seem to bring pain and suffering.

This is one such image: the Microsoft Word logo. When it comes to portraits of intense struggle, someone sitting at a computer with Microsoft Word open ranks right up there with Sisyphus, Frodo, or Jesus in Gethsemane.

Word processors help us pull off some pretty incredible stuff, but they introduce some of their own complications as well. Putting thoughts into words is an act of translation. Much like writing by hand, typing introduces another step into the communication process. And that's all assuming we are physically able to type, which of course is not guaranteed.

Thankfully, Microsoft Office takes dictation.

If you use Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or OneNote (and you speak at least one of 29 supported languages), you can grab a microphone and throw your keyboard straight in the trash.

Dictation is mercifully easy to use, especially if you only need it for brainstorming or drafting. If you want to go a little further and use it to edit or format your documents, the tool responds to a hefty list of commands. Whatever you want to use it for, Office's dictation feature can probably get you there with a little patience.

Do you want to see a demonstration of this interesting tool? (Or do you feel inexplicably drawn toward clickbait?) Well, go ahead and watch the video embedded in this page! Nobody's stopping you.

To0l Review: The Dictation Feature

Speech-to-text technology is a little mystifying to me. On one hand, it's an incredible accomplishment, and it's mind-blowing that so many of us have access to this across so many platforms. On the other hand, it takes very little time to become seriously frustrated with speech-to-text tech. I think it must poke the same part of the brain that goes off when I'm on the phone and I keep starting to talk at the same time as the person on the other end. It's a cliché, but I think you have to either laugh or cry with these things.

So, making the video demonstration was an interesting process. I had a small list of features to cover, and they all worked... kind of. I really wanted to love this tool, but I kept running into all these minor issues, especially when I tried using commands. After a bit, I felt I had only two real options: I could either pick a different assistive technology, or I could get weird with it. The result is what you see in the video above. This is as close as I could get to capturing the spirit of using this feature.

My Recommendation
Let's get this out of the way: this tool is not for me. As long as I can keep using my hands to type, I don't see myself dictating to Microsoft Word. Of course, that doesn't mean this tool has no place in my classroom.

Regarding the ISTE Innovative Designer standard, dictation could be a perfectly viable tool for generating ideas. It also encourages (or requires) tolerance for ambiguity and perseverance through a design process with its own constraints, all of which is mentioned in the standard.

And, of course, I can't ignore the central purpose of assistive technologies, which is to foster equitable access for students with diverse needs. There are plenty of students who cannot type, or whose thinking processes are seriously interrupted by typing. Dictation software can be a nudge toward equity in these cases, and considering the price and availability of Microsoft Word relative to more sophisticated dictation tools, I'm glad this one's out there.

TL;DR
If you have to use Word and typing isn't a practical option (and you have a mic and your language is supported), go ahead and use the dictation tool.

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