About Handwriting Recognition...
HANDWRITING RECOGNITION AND TABLET PCs:
Why Keyboarding Instruction Will Fizzle in this Decade
By Karl Barksdale © Speaking Solutions Inc. 2001
- What about Wrist Pads?
- Fizzled by Penmanship
- How Tablets Work
- MS Word's Writing Pad Rules
- The End of the Desktop PC?
- Installing and Launching Microsoft's Writing Pad Software (Office XP or Word 2002 Required)
- The New Computer Instructional Paradigm
- Book Combines Handwriting and Speech Training
- Summary: The New Rules of Computer Literacy
- Resolving My Personal Dilemma
Lately, I've been wondering what to do with my spongy wrist pad now that I no longer type.
I have often been accused of wanting to kill keyboarding. Nothing is further from the truth. I loved to type. It was a skill I worked hard at. I took my first semester in high school. Since it was the early '70s, there were only two of us boys in the class, which turned out to be a big boost to my social life. I took another semester of typing in college where I fell in love with the IBM Selectric. I practiced a lot. Eventually, I became a typing teacher. It was a skill in which I took pride.
But it doesn't take a genius to see the handwriting on the computer screen. After using his first Table PC, one District Administrator saw the vision and exclaimed, "The next generation won't know what a keyboard is."
Most speech recognition experts believe that keyboarding instruction will die out sooner than later. This light first came on for me in the fall of 1997 as I sat next to handicapped students voice-typing 160 wpm with over 95 percent accuracy using the most primitive of speech recognition systems. By the summer of 2000, as speech recognition software drastically improved and computer hardware costs plummeted, it was obvious where this technology was taking us.
Keyboarding Fizzled by Penmanship
Surprisingly, it will be penmanship and the Tablet PC, not speech recognition, that will bring the final death knell to keyboarding instruction in our schools. Keyboarding has been a part of our lives for over 100 years. Albeit, the keyboard will soon find its resting place next to the typewriter and the punch card in the technology graveyard thanks to the Tablet PC. We all know that Dragon NaturallySpeaking and IBM ViaVoice are good for 110-170 wpm or faster dictation with 95% accuracy after just a few weeks of training. But speech isn't practical during meetings or for taking class notes. Many have argued that keyboarding is still necessary when silence is required.
Not now... because the digital pen is mightier than the QWERTY keyboard.
I can predict the end of keyboarding for most computer users with absolute certainty because I just experienced our school's first Tablet PC -- and the light came on, again.
As I sat next to a Special Education student writing his first full sentences directly on the screen of our new Tablet PC, with this ragged printed letters, I realized that the beloved keyboard is doomed. This kid can't type. He can barely read. Nevertheless, he can use speech recognition with the noisiest chatterbox in class, and some hard-working elementary teachers taught this boy how to print and write in cursive. I had to drag him off the Tablet PC. Here's what he had to say as he worked on the tablet:
"This is fun!"
"It's easy"
"Wow, that's cool!"
"I'm going to get my dad to buy me one. I'll be on it all day!"
This level of excitement usually reserved for Microsoft's XBox. It's clear, Microsoft has another hit on its hands. Imagine, a keyboardless, fully powered Windows Pentium 4 PC.
After they see this technology in operation, there won't be an elementary or special educator in the country that won't be fighting for this technology on behalf of their students. Long hours spent in elementary typing classes will be replaced by more valuable instructional time spent handwriting written work directly on the computer screen or by speaking their thoughts aloud. Kids will apply skills they have already have learned when communicate with their computers.
The Tablet PC allows users to write with a pencil-like device directly on the screen and directly into applications such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. With the new Microsoft Word 2002 (which comes with Office XP) my students are using their penmanship again. They are screen-writing with both cursive and printed letters. Their writing instantly turns to text and appears in Microsoft Word as if they had typed or spoken the words. Handwriting is relatively fast (20-30 wpm -- which is better than most people type), it's efficient, and you can use handwriting recognition when it's impractical to speak aloud. Handwriting recognition isn't quite as accurate as speech recognition, but it's more accurate than eighth-grade typing -- by far.
Microsoft handwriting recognition is very forgiving. You can even be a bit sloppy and still take notes efficiently. Parenthetically, after a little practice, I found the digital pen to be much faster than using the mouse for editing and formatting documents. But that's for another article.
The Tablet PC is a brilliant idea being promoted by Microsoft. It makes use of our most basic communications skills, handwriting and speech. Tablet computers don't use graffiti like a PalmPilot or an old Apple Newton. Rather, you can write in regular cursive or printed letters. Because it uses standard handwriting, there is almost no learning curve for eighth graders, thanks to our excellent elementary teachers who have painstakingly taught basic handwriting skills. In fact, it only takes about 45 minutes to teach the basics of the system. Albeit, I like to give our students two-three days in their handwriting rotation so they can develop true expertise with the device.
Microsoft Word XP (2002) makes handwriting on a computer screen possible through a special software tool called Writing Pad. With Writing Pad, you simply use standard cursive or printing to write directly onto a Tablet PC screen. At the flick of a wrist, your handwriting jumps directly into Microsoft Word or into any MS Office application where your insertion point happens to reside.
I prefer writing in the Writing Pad window because it has options that allow me to control and practice my penmanship. You can write directly into your Word documents, or you can write into Outlook, PowerPoint, and Excel. It even works in Access. It works in the entire Office XP productivity suite! And that's Microsoft's plan.
What is Microsoft up to? Does it want to kill the desktop PC?
Just as many of us are sad to see keyboarding disappear, Microsoft must be sad to see the desktop PC go the way of the punch card. After all, the desktop PC made Microsoft what it is today. But consumers have spoken over the past two years through slumping PC sales. They are tired of the big, bulky desktop computers of the past. So Microsoft has formed partnerships with companies like Acer, Compaq, Fujitsu, NEC, Intel, and Toshiba to produce Tablet PC's. Sony, QBE, and Hewlett-Packard already have models. (We purchased the Sony, which uses Wacom technology that we can bolt the Tablet to the table so it doesn't wander off.) The Tablet PC is a new form factor, or style of computer, that Microsoft hopes will become a monumental consumer hit.
Bill Gates spoke to this plan at Comdex 2001 in November. "The PC took computing out of the back office and into everyone's office," said Gates. "The Tablet takes cutting-edge PC technology and makes it available wherever you want it, which is why I'm already using a Tablet as my everyday computer. It's a PC that is virtually without limits -- and within five years I predict it will be the most popular form of PC sold in America." (Bill Gates Keynote Speech, Comdex 2001, downloaded from HTTP://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2001/.
Installing and Using Microsoft's Writing Pad Software
To install handwriting recognition tools, you will need your installation CD for Office XP or Word 2002. Because installation varies slightly depending on the Windows version you are using, access your Microsoft Windows help system by clicking START, HELP (HELP AND SUPPORT in XP), and entering install handwriting recognition in the search window. Then follow the instructions:
The handwriting tools install on the Language bar next to the speech recognition tools. To make a Language bar visible, click TOOLS, SPEECH on the Microsoft Word menu bar.
SpeechTools will then appear on the Language bar. You want to start by accessing Writing Pad.
Now you're ready to go. You can use Writing Pad with the mouse, but a digital pen and a Wacom Tablet is much preferred. Still, you can glimpse the future even with the mouse.
The New Computer Instructional Paradigm
The implications of the Tablet PC announcement are resonating through the educational system. In summary:
No longer is keyboarding the gateway to computer literacy. The new gateways to computer literacy are:
- penmanship,
- reading aloud,
- and old-fashioned enunciation.
Welcome back to the future. To use computers effectively today, students must learn the ageless basics. Elementary students must learn to read aloud confidently, pronounce words clearly, and write in cursive or printed letters. These are basic skills in which every teacher rejoices. The back-to-basics movement now has technology on its side. Finally we have a technology that matches our highest educational goals.
This is enough to make every K-3 teacher jump for joy. No longer are their painstaking efforts to teach students to write clearly and legibly so easily discounted by later keyboarding instruction. And, much to their delight, those of us that have allowed our penmanship skills to slip through years of continuous typing, will also need to return to these basics.
Elementary keyboarding programs will now begin to disappear. There is no time for it. By the time the current crop of elementary students reach college or the job market, typing will no longer matter. Can there be any doubt that everything in computer education will be transformed within the next 5 years? Instead of hours of endless tapping away on the home row, elementary students should practice their penmanship, reading, and enunciation skills using Tablet PCs, because these are the skills they will need in the future.
There will be a protracted 3-year debate about how costly this transition will be and how we can't stop teaching keyboarding until all keyboards have disappeared everywhere. Albeit, the end result is inevitable and visionary views will prevail. One district administrator put it this way, "How many precious instructional hours are currently wasted in Elementary schools teaching typing which can be put to better use teaching reading, science, or math. We have to look at the opportunity cost of continued keyboarding." (I would add that more time needs to be spent in old-fashioned penmanship practice.)
A long time ago, an executive at WordPerfect told me that the biggest barrier to the miniaturization of computers was the keyboard. In his view, until the keyboard could be eliminated, computers, even portables, would continue to be large and bulky devices. Now that this barrier to computer miniaturization has been removed, computers will become smaller, sleeker, faster, and better than ever. All this is thanks to speech and handwriting recognition software that has been created by Microsoft, Plantronics, Wacom, ScanSoft, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and IBM ViaVoice. As educators, we owe these and other high-tech companies a huge debt of gratitude for this monumental educational reform.
Book Combines Handwriting and Speech Training
Course Technology™ has a new book that integrates speech with handwriting recognition instruction. The book will allow you to train your students for Tablet PCs even with existing equipment. Visit the Books section at Speaking Solutions to learn more.
Summary: The New Rules of Computer Literacy
Students should be taught to use speech recognition for anything that requires speed and accuracy. When students are unable to speak, such as when they are in a class taking notes, they should be taught to use handwriting recognition.
The bottom line is this . . . most keyboards will become idle by the end of this decade, at least for most people. Oh, there will be a few keyboards quietly clicking around old legacy systems that managers will continually refuse to upgrade. (After all, I know of a school, which shall remain nameless, that finally replaced their typing class typewriters in 2001.) There will also be limited ongoing uses for keyboards and the number pad may still have some utility into the next decade. But for all intents and purposes, the keyboard will be dead by the end of the decade as the dominate computer input device.
As one sage Special Education Director observed, "The keyboard will become an accommodation we use for a few students with special handicaps which prevent them from speaking clearly or handwriting legibly."
Resolving the Wrist Pad Dilemma
And now back to my perplexing problem. What do I do with my spongy wrist pad now that I no longer type?
I've just leaned on the answer. My wrist pad has found a permanent home on my desk. I'm finding myself resting my elbows on the pad as I think, speak, and lean against my desk while looking out my window voice-writing this article.
It's a beautiful day in Springville, because it's about to snow. For everyone in Utah, this is a good thing. After all, the Olympics are coming and we need the snow. And thanks to my new "elbow" pad, I can enjoy looking out my window at the impending storm while speaking this article with NaturallySpeaking into Word and editing the pages online with my new digital pen and Microsoft's handwriting recognition.
This powerful combination of tools has changed my entire outlook on computer education. I find myself leaning on my elbow pad thinking about all the students that will benefit from these technological breakthroughs. I am grateful that my kids have a chance to learn these technologies this semester.
You gotta' love technology -- and elbow pads.
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(NOTE: This article has been provided courtesy www.SpeakingSolutions.com, the major provider of speech and handwriting products to schools.)