UPGRADING DIGITOOLS TO WINDOWS VISTA AND OFFICE 2007

AND WHAT IT MAY MEAN FOR SPEECH AND HANDWRITING INSTRUCTION

Clearly, Windows Vista will make teaching speech and handwriting recognition much easier than it has ever been. Since the shift to Windows Vista and Office 2007 is the biggest change for schools in about 15-20 years, it requires serious thought about how to move forward responsibly and expeditiously.

Here are some things to consider:

1) Both the speech and handwriting recognition have moved to Windows Vista.

• There is no Microsoft speech recognition in Office 2007.
• There is no handwriting recognition in Office 2007 either. (Read MORE IMPORTANT NEWS REGARDING HANDWRITING below.)

2) I doublt anyone will be able to use Dragon 6, 7, or 8 with Office 2007. My guess is they will need to upgrade to Dragon 9 and then download a special update for Office 2007 running under Windows XP. Then, they may need to upgrade again when they try to run Dragon with Windows Vista.

All of this sounds like a lot of work and hassle for instructors and system administrators. With speech recognition built into Windows Vista for free, it seems like a win-win to let Microsoft worry about the upgrades and all of the compatibility issues.

3) As long as a school is running Office 2003 with Windows XP, continue with Dragon or teach Microsoft Office 2003 speech. Schools need not feel that they are too far behind with this configuration. At least they’re meeting the core objectives fostered by the new technologies.

But the Office 2007 interface is so new and exciting, it will be hard to see how a school can continue teaching the old Office 97-2003 interface for too long. (Read my earlier blog on this at http://inputtechnologies.blogspot.com/2006/08/wait-for-microsoft-windows-vista-and.html)

4) If a school wants to upgrade to Office 2007, they should consider upgrading the whole enchilada to Windows Vista and Office 2007 at the same time. It may take them several years to do that financially, but it will be easier, I believe, to migrate away from Dragon at that point. The money saved on upgrading to Dragon, approximately $3000 per computer lab, could go toward a computer hardware (RAM) and an OS Windows Vista upgrade.

5) My recommendation for such an upgrade would be:

• 1 GB of RAM Minimum - 2 GB of RAM or more, much better
• A 64 bit, 3 GHz processor or faster (Vista will run on 32 bit processors but will not provide the full Vista multimedia effects.)
• A 256 MB video card (Vista will run on lesser cards but will not provide the full Vista multimedia effects.)

IMPORTANT NEWS REGARDING HANDWRITING:

With the release of Windows Vista in early 2007, Microsoft's handwriting software will be standardized and will look very much like what you’re experiencing today on a tablet PC.

There will be no separate Office handwriting recognition tools like there were for Office 2003! It has been replaced by the same high-quality tablet PC tools available on every PC, including desktop PCs with Wacom boards. But you will need Windows Vista to run it.

Let me just reiterate the exciting news! You will get the same handwriting recognition software on both tablet PCs, ultra mobile PCs, as well as on desktop and laptops using Wacom boards. IT WILL BE AVAILABLE IN THE VISTA OS ON EVERY NEW COMPUTER SOLD!

This is a major step forward for input technologies instruction. This will make things much, much easier for every input technologies teacher.

Sincerely,

Karl Barksdale
This was voice-written with Microsoft Windows Vista speech recognition.