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About the Speech Recognition Project
 Speech recognition software has been presented as a panacea for pupils with writing difficulties, but the reality can be very different! While there are a few schools where speech recognition has been used with pupils with great success, there are many more where it has been tried and quickly abandoned.
The CALL Introducing Speech Recognition in Schools project aimed to investigate best practice in schools where speech recognition was being used successfully, and develop and evaluate training materials to help other schools get going with speech recognition. It was funded by the Scottish Executive Education Department.
The main outcome of the project was a Training Pack (comprising a book and a CD) for schools to use when introducing speech recognition in schools. Copies of the books and CD were sent, free of charge, to all secondary schools in Scotland in March 2003. The pack includes:
- guidance on identifying pupils who might benefit from speech recognition;
- technical hints and tips on installing and operating the systems;
- 10 Lesson Plans, with exercises, for introducing speech recognition to pupils;
- advice on management of speech recognition systems in schools.
The Pack was evaluated by 40 secondary schools in Scotland from November 2000 to March 2002, and modified in response to comments from staff and students. We chose to focus on Support for Learning Departments in secondary schools, rather than special schools or units, because the largest potential group of students are those with specific learning difficulties in secondary education.
Training Pack
The Training Pack, written by Paul Nisbet and Allan Wilson, is over 100 pages and contains 10 detailed lessons on how to train pupils to use speech recognition programs. There are different versions for Dragon Naturally Speaking Version 5, and IBM ViaVoice Millennium 7.
The CD which accompanies the Pack has electronic versions of the pack and training materials, together with support files, research reports, powerpoint presentations, and video clips.
The books and CD can be purchased from the CALL Centre, or downloaded from the Resources Section below. Schools and others with an interest in speech recognition are welcome to use the materials freely but they are copyright to the authors and copies may not be sold for profit. We would be grateful for feedback on how the resources are being used and how they could be improved.
Resources to view or download:
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Paul Nisbet was invited to give a Keynote speech on using speech recognition in schools, at the Danish national ICT and SEN conference, 
