| | |  | Communication | Home » » » » Dragon Dictate V2.0 Student/Teacher Ed | | | | | | | Description: | | Dragon speech recognition software is helping to enhance the educational process for students and teachers alike. It has been shown to improve core reading and writing skills for students of all abilities, including those with physical or language-based learning disabilities as well as English Language Learners. Dragon lets students dictate papers and assignments three times faster than typing - with up to 99% accuracy. It also lets them control their computer desktop and applications by voice to get more done faster - whether they're sending email, taking notes, doing research on the Web, or creating a presentation. Dragon is widely used in secondary business education and computer applications courses to familiarize students with emerging interfaces. Plus, many teachers rely on the software as a productivity tool to help them manage their overwhelming administrative workload. With all these advantages, it's no wonder that Dragon is being used in more and more elementary, secondary, and post-secondary school today-with great results. | | | Features: | |
• Instead of a keyboard, use your voice to produce text. Speak your thoughts; then watch your words appear on screen in your favourite Mac applications - and up to three times faster than typing
• Control your Mac in a relaxed, hands-free manner without being tied to your keyboard. Instead of using your mouse, just speak commands to launch and control applications.
• Tell your Mac what to do, like "Reply To This Message" or "Open Microsoft Word" or "Jump To Google" to work faster and smarter. Create voice commands that automate complex workflows on your Mac.
• Create a digital world, powered by your own voice. Customise Dragon Dictate for Mac with personal vocabulary and voice commands that reflect the kind of work you do.
• Dragon Dictate for Mac was built to give users the experience they expect from their favourite Macintosh applications - an intuitive, easy-to-use interface that dramatically boosts productivity.
• Because Dragon enables users to dictate three times faster than typing - with up to 99% accuracy -teachers can prepare lesson plans, syllabi, reading lists, worksheets, and more faster than ever before.
• Dragon saves students time by letting them take notes by simply talking to their computers or speaking into a Nuance-certified handheld digital recorder for later transcription on their PC. No more cramped fingers from jotting down notes by hand.
• Students can use simple spoken commands to find information on the Internet or files on their computer. They can locate information quickly and easily by simply saying things like, "Search the Web for global warming articles,?
• Teachers can use Dragon to provide more detailed feedback when assessing student work - from papers through research projects to tests - with unprecedented speed and ease.
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 7.5 inches | | Product Width:
| 5.0 inches | | Product Height:
| 2.5 inches | | Package Length:
| 7.8 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.3 inches | | Package Height:
| 2.6 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.35 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 19 reviews |
| | | System Requirements: | | | Platform:
| Mac OS X | | Media:
| DVD-ROM / CD-ROM | | Item Quantity:
| 1 |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 19 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 28 found the following review helpful:
 Still needs a LOT of work to catch up to Window's Dragon11Nov 02, 2011
By b_mccaffery
I recently purchased a Mac to replace my old PC laptop, therefore I needed to repurchase the Dragon speech program for Mac. For starters, the registration process for the student edition was simple and easy. Installation was easy and it takes you through a speech training program for it to properly sync to your accents. I did all of the training programs that were available to make sure it would be as accurate as possible. However, despite all of the training, this program is only about 75% accurate with its words. I mainly use Dragon for Word and Pages documents, in which you can use it seamlessly. I can understand if it confuses similar sounding words (their/they're), but it thinks every time I say "Lastly", it thinks I said "Wesley". Compared to what I was using on my PC before buying this program, this is a piece of junk. It is not worth more than $40 (to the $120 I spent on Amazon), particularly if you have to go back and reedited every single sentence you say. It may be 3x faster than typing your documents, but it is 10x longer in proofreading and reediting everything. It is a shame that there is nothing better than this program for speech recognition. Almost wish I had a PC again.
23 of 23 found the following review helpful:
 So far... pretty impressedApr 12, 2011
By larry cortez
I've used a program like this years ago called dragon speaks when this technology was new. So I bought this with much hesitation from the experience I had with the first versions of it. When I got the product in the mail, I put it to use right away. I did the tutorial and exercises for the program to recognize my speech pattern and did some tests. I wasn't used to the voice commands, but began to become more comfortable in talking. The accuracy of the program is very high. The fault I find is not with the program but the way I pronounce words that it cannot recognize. For example, if I pronounce a spanish last name incorrectly, it will try its best to spell a word similar to it. Maybe this can be something the programmers can work on and add on a command for "names." The program is fairly fast, however I found that changing the default settings between speed and quality, can add delay when it lays out the text. This means you are waiting to see if the program has actually recognized the right words but your waiting and waiting. So I put it back to default and it was fine. The only other annoying thing I found was trying to correct or delete the last word it misspelled. After you backspace to delete the word, it kept adding some character to the line.
The quality of the headphone mic is pretty good. I could of paid for the bluetooth version but I didn't have enough funds. the USB adapter to plug in the wired headpiece can be a bit "cumbersome." I am currently saving up for a bluetooth headphone with mic.
Overall, I have to give Dragon Dictate 2.0 a very high rating. They have come a long way to recognize voice, and being a person with a bad phonics handicap as well as dyslexic and ADD, this program is a must have to get you through your academics.
18 of 18 found the following review helpful:
 What you need for student versionSep 27, 2011
By Jessie
If you want to see what this software can do, look over at the reviews for the non-student version, as the software is exactly the same. In my experience, the voice recognition has been very good. Version 2.5 makes it work pretty well in Microsoft Word. One caveat: if you are using it in a very long Word documents, such as over 30 pages, the dictation software is so slow as to be unusable. And this is with my brand-new MacBook Pro.
Amazon notes that you need to prove your student or faculty status when you buy this version. All I needed was my student e-mail address which has the name of the institution and a .edu ending, and I was sent the registration information immediately. No 24-hour waiting period and no need to call the company or provide any other information.
12 of 12 found the following review helpful:
They now are up to Dragon 2.5 and if you get this you get the 2.5 upgrade too.Feb 09, 2012
By Charles Bittner
"Disabled comedian & gamer!"
Below you'll find my review of Dragon 2.0 but I want to add that Nuance has recently released the 2.5 version of Dragon and I believe that if you buy the 2.0 version you get a free upgrade to 2.5. And with Dragon 2.5 you can now dictate using your iPhone app not exactly sure what that means? But I will update this when I have more information. I hope you enjoy the review below!
(This whole review is done with Dragon I will not edit it at all)
As a quadriplegic standup comedian (okay I'm the cant stand up comic) I spent a lot of time doing voice dictation. I have been using Dragon naturally speaking since 1995 and I must say it is truly an amazing product and Dragon dictate 2.0 for Mac is the same. I will be adding to this review as I dig down into Dragon 2.0 and some of the editing and correction features. But first I want to give a basic overview on voice dictation and being successful.
One other thing to note I do not use Dragon for mouse movements and commands as I had the ability to use a touchpad mouse so I will not delve into those features in my review. This will merely focus on how you can use voice dictation effectively to receive near 100% accuracy. And how Dragon dictate 2.0 does it almost perfectly every time.
One thing you need to think about when you get into voice dictation is speaking in word clumps. You have to think about what you want to have Dragon type for you then you have to say those sentences in chunks (I hope that makes sense) most people who complain about voice dictation don't take the time to realize this.
In the following example I did edit the text when errors were made for continuity of thought.
[Example]
if I wanted to say "Is that the wheelchair that goes upstairs?" "No it is not but it goes downstairs one time really fast!"
The way I attacked this sentence was "Is that the wheelchair -pause- that goes upstairs question mark -pause- no it is not -pause- but it goes downstairs -pause- one time really fast exclamation point
Here is another one "what is the worst thing that a handicapped person can hear? Is it a doctor telling you you'll never walk again? Or someone saying you can't go with us because you are disabled? No the worst thing we can hear is someone in a crowd yell "run for your lives" at that point I know I am boned.
Here is how I approached saying that joke out loud I will put in a - where I pause
what is the worst thing-that a handicapped person-can hear question mark - is it a doctor-telling you-you'll never walk again question mark - or someone saying-you can't go with us-because you are disabled-question mark - no-the worst thing that we can hear-is someone in a crowd-yell-open quote- run for your lives-end quote- at that point-I know I'm boned period
[End example]
I hope that helps you again understanding how to speak in clumps of words remember to keep your word count between pauses at about 7 to 10. If you do this you will be successful in using voice dictation. If you put a microphone near your mouth and learned to speak in word clumps I say you will have 99% accuracy every time.
Without speaking a word clumps and thinking about what you want to say is when voice dictation has problems, here is an example of a long sentence I will speak this without stopping and pausing at certain points.
What I said: I am not disabled I am just very lazy and really I'm only in this thing for the parking.
What Dictate heard: I am not disabled I am just very lazy and really I'm only in this thing for the parking.
There you go it got a perfect 19 word sentence correct but most of the time keeping your clumps lower helps the program not make mistakes that is just what I have found.
DO ALL THE TRAINING Is all I have to say! Sorry for yelling out better now. But really one thing I found super helpful in doing voice dictation is doing all of the training that you can. While you might not feel like reading a bunch of chapters from random books it really helps and should be done. I make a rule to do all the training the program provides so that it gets used my voice.
Now the microphone that comes with Dragon is decent and will get you almost 99% accuracy. Right now I'm using a tabletop microphone I'm sitting about 6-8 inches away from the microphone and still getting perfect accuracy! Truly amazing how far it's come in 15 years.
What I appreciate also about Dragon is its low resource usage. I mean as I use Dragon through the years it would talk a lot of resources i.e. CPU power and RAM space but now on even a low-cost computer will be fully capable of running this powerful program. I would happily recommend at least 2 GB of RAM though.
Till I Collapse by Eminem lyrics, this is unedited straight dictation. First line is dictation - (Second is the true verse to compare.)
--------------------
As soon as the verse starts I eat it at MC's heart - (Soon as a verse starts I eat it at MC's heart) * ERROR
what's he thinking? How not to go against me? Smart. - (what is he thinking? How not to go against me? Smart.) * PERFECT
And it's absurd how people hang on every word - (And its absurd how people hang on every word.) * PERFECT
I'll probably never get the props I feel I ever deserve - (I'll probably never get the props I feel I ever deserve) * PERFECT
but I'll never be served my spot is forever reserved - (But I'll never be served my spot is forever reserved) * PERFECT
if I ever leave Earth that would be the death of me first. - (If I ever leave earth that would be the death of me first.) * PERFECT
Visit my heart of hearts I know nothing could ever be worse. - (Cause in my heart of hearts I know nothing could ever be worse.) * ERROR
That's why I'm clever when I put together every verse - (That's why I'm clever when I put together every verse) * PERFECT
my thoughts are sporadic, I act like I'm inadequate - (My thoughts are sporadic, I act like I'm an addict) * ERROR
I rap like I'm addicted to smack like I'm Kim Mathers. - (I rap like I'm addicted to smack like I'm Kim Mathers.) * ERROR
the fact is I would rather sit back and bomb some rappers. - (The fact is I would rather sit back and bomb some rappers.) * PERFECT
So this is like a full-blown attack I'm launching Them - (So this is like a full blown attack I'm launching at them) * ERROR
the track is on some battling raps who wants some static - (The track is on some battling raps who want some static) * PERFECT
because I don't really think that the fact that I'm slim matters - (Cause I don't really think that the fact that I'm Slim matters) * ERROR
a plaque of platinum status is wack if I'm not the baddest. - (A plaque of platinum status is whack if I'm not the baddest.) * ERROR
--------------------
I would say that there were a few errors in that resuscitation of that rap but not bad, and good enough that it would save me about 30 minutes to type that okay maybe 15 but I do type one key at a time.
ONE BONUS OF VOICE DICTATION TO NOTE:
Is that voice dictation sometimes makes mistakes but those mistakes can really be great. So sometimes voice dictation will misunderstand what you say what the end result is better than or uses different words then you are going to ever use. For example the other day I went to use "definitely demonstrates" and Dragon burped out "deftly demonstrates" and in the context it's error was a better fit is so bonus when that happens! Keep that in mind voice dictation for the win!
So all in all I recommend Dragon to anyone with a disability for sure, and if you are dyslexic Dragon can really help you also. I think you'll find that this program will free you from the keyboard when it comes to entering tax into e-mails or documents web forums and the like.
I am Chuck Bittner of [...] and I approve this message LOL!
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
Easy to activate, just beginning to use.Jan 06, 2012
By Abby Simons
Let me start by saying I'm using DragonDictate to write this review. It took about 15 min. to install and activate, by using my.EDU e-mail account, this program. Training the program to recognize my speech took another 5 min. Its accuracy is relatively good. If you have a.edu e-mail account you won't need any time at all to get started. Other information I wanted before purchasing includes: 1. This is version 2.5, 2. You can add words to the dictionary and train Dragon to recognize them. This is important to me, because I am an entomologist and there are many scientific terms I will need that are not included in the standard dictionary.
I will update my review as I use the program. This review took slightly longer to write using Dragon then typing, but there is some background noise.
See all 19 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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