Six Little Hearts: Making Homework Easier For Teens with Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium Software Plus Giveaway

Tuesday, 28 October 2014

Making Homework Easier For Teens with Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium Software Plus Giveaway

*This is a sponsored post on behalf of Dragon by Nuance and Digital Parents Collective.

I don't think there's a single person amongst us who has not experienced the frustration of trying to type an idea super-fast before losing the information altogether due to fingers that just couldn't keep up.

Have you ever watched someone struggling to do this and felt that eye-rolling pang of frustration for them?

I am quite a fast typist, thanks to years of dead-boring keyboard and computing classes when I was in high school. I was trained to touch type but honestly, those skills went out the door long ago. In truth, I never fully mastered the touch-typing thing at all and my own typing 'skill' is more a personal style I have developed through practice which has fortunately become reasonably quick and serves me well.

Then there's my almost teenage Son who is currently in year 6 and though he's pretty deft at using the web, computer games and can zip about pages on an iPad like a pro, I have often observed that he's not a fast typist. During homework downtime he's a frequent victim of these 'keyboard fumbles' which can be so irritating when there's an important idea just bursting to be caught. Too often his thoughts are lost altogether due to a lack of typing prowess and when this happens, I've stood-by and cringed as the enthusiasm, effort and concentration drop off along with it; Not good!

When you're a parent, this is an outcome you just do not want for your child. It's hard enough getting a teenager motivated to do anything and distractions on such a crucial level can be a real hindrance.

We've been playing around with a new study aid kindly sent to us by Nuance. The Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium Speech Recognition Software is a simple to use tool which you can install on your home PC to aid your child to quickly record their thoughts as soon as they are voiced. This software translates speech into text and it's a technology which has been eagerly embraced by my second eldest tech obsessed child.

The program allows users to work wirelessly and can make your words and voice commands appear much faster than typing them and with 99% accuracy. Users can send emails, surf the web, dictate and edit simply by voicing their commands, effectively allowing students of all ages to forget about their typing woes altogether.

Inside the box is everything you need to get started: A CD ROM, full instructions and a headset with built-in microphone. There's also a guide of simple voice commands to aid the translation process.

Installation was easy on our family PC. Actually, it was so easy my twelve year old Son installed it for me. :D

It is important to note that the software is designed to transcribe a single person's voice so decide on the family member with the most need and call it theirs. For this reason also, the program is unable to transcribe multiple people speaking at once in a single recording. These points are the only drawbacks we encountered and are not really a genuine issue at all with regard to most users but are worth a mention here.

My Son was keen to get started right away and tested the software with a story he pulled from thin air. He was amused by the speed and thrill of seeing his voice become words on the screen in front of him as if by magic. This one is off to high school next year so we've decided that he is the lucky recipient of the program for his future studies. He's chuffed by that too. Being a little computer whizz, to him it's all fun and games which is great.

After a good play around to familiarise ourselves with Dragon, we came up with several reasons why we love the software:

Your voice is transcribed instantly and with great accuracy.
The program can adapt to the user's preferences giving you control over formatting when it comes to words, phrases and numbers.
With frequent use, Dragon's software promises to achieve even greater accuracy as it learns to adapt to its single user.
The program translates without spelling errors so your time working becomes more productive - no back-tracking for corrections or typos.
The user can create their own custom voice commands which are unique to them or preferred.
You can control your PC almost entirely by voice command: Switch from one window to another or surf the web hands-free.

The program allows you to use whichever microphone you prefer too, be it built-in or wireless giving you greater freedom to work however you prefer. You can even transcribe your own notes from a compatible digital voice recorder including iOS and Android devices, so down the track, this is a program that has the potential to grow with my Son.

We're looking forward to getting to know the software more with time. It's lots of fun, (according to Ki) and I hope the enthusiasm remains strong when he's faced with the difficult assignments and deadlines that are coming his way next year.

Dragon is available in Premium (as featured here), Home and Mac versions and is priced at $99.95.
Full details and instant digital downloads can be purchased on their website here. Dragon is also available in store at Harvey Norman and Officeworks.

Nuance would like to offer five Six Little Hearts readers the chance to win a copy of the Dragon NaturallySpeaking software in a format of their choice valued at $99.95 each.

The total prize pool of this giveaway is $500.

This software is suitable for anyone who would like the convenience of transcribing a large amount of voice to text quickly and effortlessly. If you're a blogger too, this comes highly recommended!

Please share the love! Let your friends know about this review and giveaway by shouting out about it using the social media options below.
I really appreciate this so thank you in advance!

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*Disclosure: Six Little Hearts received product and payment in exchange for this feature.

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