Audio to Text software (free, ideally)

I know this is an area of technology that is still murky, but I ask this question on behalf of a teaching colleague who wants to classroom inquiry into some of her students (who struggle with the physical act of writing) using audio recording to draft their writing, then convert that audio into text, then revise the writing and then re-record the final version, and see what kind of improvements in student performance happen along the way. I find her inquiry quite intriguing.
Her question is: Is there a good audio-to-text software out there that would take the student recording and convert it to text?
(And yes, free would be great.)
I didn't have any answers to that question and a basic query on Google seemed to come up short so I thought this would be a good community to pose such a question.
If you have any ideas, I would appreciate them.
Thanks,
Kevin

Tags: audio, text

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Permalink Reply by David Kapuler on December 11, 2007 at 10:42am

The Company's name is Don Johnston and they might have something that would fit your needs. One of their programs is called Write Out Loud which helps students who struggle w/ writing you can check it out by going here. http://www.donjohnston.com/products/write_outloud/index.html

They do have some stuff you can download and demo but special ed software is expensive.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin H. on December 12, 2007 at 3:38am

Thanks for the info and link, David.
I appreciate it
Kevin

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Permalink Reply by Steve O'Connor on December 12, 2007 at 7:16am

I know of nothing free. On the Mac side there is iListen. On the PC there is Dragon Naturally Speaking. I believe IBM has something too.

One problem hat we have experienced is that many of the kids that could really use such software, were unable to read the "training passages" with sufficient fluency to make it work. Our Occupational therapist also has noted that it tends to work better after kids' voices change.

They are picky about noise and microphone placement--as well as the kind of microphone.

My 11 year old son lost patience with iListen (and he is becoming pretty good at the keyboard). Maybe it will work better in a few years. I had mixed luck with it, but I wasn't using the recommended mic. I have a new mic now, so maybe I'll give it another try.

Steve

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Permalink Reply by Meg Ormiston on December 14, 2007 at 8:52am

Kevin,
How about I wish it was free. Microsoft Office 2007, the voice recognition finally works!
My son has fine motor issues (age 12) and he uses Microsoft Word at home for his assignments. It is such an approvement over anything else I have ever tried. It is so exciting to see the quality of his writing when you take the fine motor issues out of it! I am also running Vista on that machine.

Now he independently can "talk through" his assignments, it is so cool to watch him use a tool that will be critical to his success in the future!