Voice-over technology changes study habits

I used to read my work aloud to my roommates, my friends and my family ““ sometimes even just out loud to myself ““ to check grammar and flow. I would have study groups just so I could hear people talk about the material in class.

Now I have my computer do all this for me.

The universal access settings on a Mac will read documents aloud. It has changed the way I write, read and think with my computer. I have it read me my notes from class while I paint my toenails, read my essays back to me while I clean my room, and read me electronic versions of handouts from class while I move actual sheets of paper off my desk and into my recycle bin.

It’s more time-saving than any computer-orientated organizational tool I’ve ever used and also better than a podcast.

The general consumer market, for both voice-over and voice recognition software, has changed the cost and the capabilities of this type of software drastically in the past few years, said Patrick Burke, coordinator of the Disabilities and Computing Program.

“The next big challenge is how to get the correct verbal representation of graphics and maps and more challenging document types,” Burke said.

I’m glad to be helping along the market of voice-over software, by becoming an avid user and making my own relationship with my computer more relaxing, and thus more enriching.

I find that I learn better when relaxed; listening is relaxing.

I was able to study and write last quarter beyond the normal period of frustration and memorization that caps out my studying and learning time. Moving the computer screen from my eyes to my ears has changed the way I can work with my computer.

It’s all about how you learn to use it.

I write almost exclusively at the computer. Why? There are the obvious reasons: speed in typing, mobility in editing, and of course, spell check. It also becomes very easy to get distracted or edit the same paragraph incessantly, but writing without a computer would be much more torturous.

There are less obvious reasons too. I engage different thinking processes with a keyboard than a pen and I enjoy the added mobility in the pliable visualization of language on screen. For me, writing on the computer creates a whole new way of thinking about structure and language.

“The speed and the efficiency is clearly a plus in a number of ways,” said Bruce Beiderwell, director of writing programs at UCLA.

Beiderwell still encourages students who work on a piece of writing to print it out and write all over it in pencil.

Some of the complaints associated with the computer mirror its draws, accessibility for speed. But there is an incessant need to slow down.

How can we learn to use the computer beneficially rather than detrimentally?

Marilyn Gray, coordinator of the Graduate Writing Center has to unplug her DSL line to work sometimes. She doesn’t just unplug it from her computer, she unplugs it from the wall itself ““ to allow herself to get lost in her writing without, of course, checking her e-mail.

Limiting the amount of time you spend with a device or a particular technology can be quite liberating.

Beiderwell is concerned with the act of removing the human voice and replacing it with the computer, as reading one’s own writing is a surefire way to check for all the right organizational and structural cues from language. He sees that reading out loud, in any form however can be beneficial.

“(There’s not a problem with technology, but the problem occurs) if you perhaps make the mistake of over-depending on the technology to the exclusion of physical acts like voice and mark up on paper and pencil,” Beiderwell said. “I’m not against the one. I’m just saying don’t forget the other.”

There are many different programs that can help.

“We don’t really have a recommendation on the free software but there is a bunch of stuff out there,” Burke said.

If you have Microsoft Windows 2000, XP or Vista, your computer is equipped with Narrator, a simple screen reader. For the Mac, a similar program is available on universal access preferences and there is also open source voice-over software on Linux.

E-mail Rood at [email protected]

For the Mac, a similar program is available on universal access preferences and there is also open source voice-over software on Linux.