All about Microsoft's Handwriting Recognition

Handwriting recognition will improve our computer input routine. In fact, if tablet PCs catch on like we believe they will, penmanship may become the most important computer literacy input skill of all! While speech is clearly a faster than handwriting (110-170 wpm vs. 20-30 wpm), there are times when it is impractical, as in meetings or in class lectures.

• Article: Why Should I Teach Handwriting Recognition? Handwriting Recognition and Tablet PCs: Why High School Keyboarding Instruction Will Decline in This Decade

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PENMANSHIP PART 1: Is Cursive Dead? On a required school-wide writing exercise, only 4% of our students used cursive. The rest, 96%, printed. And the penmanship was iffy among those who used cursive/script. And it gets worse...

PENMANSHIP PART 2: Penmanship's Storied Past and the Technological Roots of Its Revival Long before the click and clack of the typewriter, before the tip and tap of the keyboard, the scratch of pen and ink on paper echoed through the corridors of every business... Today, however, business educators are discussing the appalling lack of cursive. Some students can't write it and others can't read it... It's time for business educators to lead a revival in cursive. To make this happen, we should explore the business education roots of penmanship and the technological roots of its revival.

HANDWRITING RECOGNITION AND TABLET PCs:

Why Keyboarding Instruction Will Decline in this Decade

By Karl Barksdale © 2001

1. What about Wrist Pads?
2. The Need for Penmanship
3. How Tablets Work
4. MS Word's Writing Pad Rules
5. The End of the Desktop PC?
6. The New Computer Instructional Paradigm
7. Book Combines Handwriting and Speech Training
8. Summary: The New Rules of Computer Literacy
9. Resolving My Personal Dilemma

What about Wrist Pads?

Lately, I've been wondering what to do with my spongy wrist pad now that I no longer type.

I have often been accused of wanting to kill keyboarding. Nothing is further from the truth. I loved to type. It was a skill I worked hard at. I took my first semester in high school. Since it was the early '70s, there were only two of us boys in the class, which turned out to be a big boost to my social life. I took another semester of typing in college where I fell in love with the IBM Selectric. I practiced a lot. Eventually, I became a typing teacher. It was a skill in which I took pride.

But it doesn't take a genius to see the handwriting on the computer screen. After using his first Table PC, one District Administrator saw a vision of the future and exclaimed, "The next generation won't know what a keyboard is."

Most speech recognition experts believe that keyboarding instruction will eventually go into decline, especially at the high school level. This light first came on for me in the fall of 1997 as I sat next to handicapped students voice-typing 160 wpm with over 96 percent accuracy using the most primitive of speech recognition systems. By the summer of 2002, as speech recognition software drastically improved and computer hardware costs plummeted, it was obvious that the technology was taking us into uncharted territory.

The Need for Penmanship

Surprisingly, it will be penmanship and the new handwriting recognition technologies found in Office XP, Office 2003, and the Tablet PC, not speech recognition, that will bring the most significant decline in the level of keyboarding instruction in the future. Keyboarding has been a part of our lives for over 130 years. it isn't going to go away all of a sudden. It will take some very powerful changes in the technologies before the masses will abandon it.

Albeit, there is no getting around the efficiencies: We all know that Dragon NaturallySpeaking is good for 110-180 wpm or faster dictation with 96% accuracy after just a few days of training. But speech isn't practical during meetings or for taking class notes, so many have argued that keyboarding is still necessary when silence is required.

Not now... because the digital pen is mightier than the QWERTY keyboard when it comes to taking notes or inputting text quietly during a meeting or a class. Microsoft's OneNote application has signaled this change. The digital pen is going to be a big part of the future.

I can predict that handwriting recognition (which includes hand-typing, or converting handwritten text into type text, and notetaking using one's own handwriting to capture notes with digital ink) will replace much of our typing in the future. I know this because I just experienced our school's first Tablet PC -- and the light came on, again.

As I sat next to a Special Education student writing his first full sentences directly on the screen of our new Tablet PC, with this ragged printed letters, I realized that the beloved keyboard will not be as important in the future as it has been in the past. This kid can't type. He can barely read. Nevertheless, he can use speech recognition with the noisiest chatterbox in class, and some hard-working elementary teachers taught this boy how to print and write in cursive. I had to drag him off the Tablet PC. Here's what he had to say as he worked on the tablet:

"This is fun!"
"It's easy"
"Wow, that's cool!"
"I'm going to get my dad to buy me one. I'll be on it all day!"

This level of excitement usually reserved for Microsoft's XBox. It's clear, Microsoft has another hit on its hands. Imagine, a keyboardless, fully powered Windows Pentium 4 PC.

After they see this technology in operation, there won't be an elementary, secondary, or special educator in the country that won't be fighting for this technology on behalf of their students. Long hours spent in elementary typing classes will be replaced by more valuable instructional time spent handwriting written work directly on the computer screen or by speaking their thoughts aloud. Kids will apply skills they have already have learned when communicate with their computers.

Combining speech with handwriting recognition is simply more efficient. I now work for days using the speech and handwriting tools in rapid combination and I seldom see the keyboard lying hidden behind my convertible 14 inch Tablet PC screen.

How Tablets Work

The Tablet PC allows users to write with a pencil-like device directly on the screen and directly into applications such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. With Microsoft Word XP or Word 2003 my students are using their penmanship again. They are screen-writing with both cursive and printed letters. Their writing instantly turns to text and appears in Microsoft Word as if they had typed or spoken the words. Handwriting is relatively fast (20-30 wpm -- which is better than most people type), it's efficient, and you can use handwriting recognition when it's impractical to speak aloud. Handwriting recognition isn't quite as accurate as speech recognition, but it's more accurate than eighth-grade typing -- by far.

Microsoft handwriting recognition is very forgiving. You can even be a bit sloppy and still take notes efficiently. Parenthetically, after a little practice, I found the digital pen to be much faster than using the mouse for editing and formatting documents. But that's for another article.

The Tablet PC is a brilliant idea being promoted by Microsoft. It makes use of our most basic communications skills, handwriting and speech. Tablet computers don't use graffiti like a PalmPilot or an old Apple Newton. Rather, you can write in regular cursive or printed letters. Because it uses standard handwriting, there is almost no learning curve for eighth graders, thanks to our excellent elementary teachers who have painstakingly taught basic handwriting skills. In fact, it only takes about 45 minutes to teach the basics of the system. Albeit, I like to give our students two-three days in their handwriting rotation so they can develop true expertise with the device.

MS Word's Writing Pad Rules

Microsoft Word XP (2002) makes handwriting on a computer screen possible through a special software tool called Writing Pad. With Writing Pad, you simply use standard cursive or printing to write directly onto a Tablet PC screen. At the flick of a wrist, your handwriting jumps directly into Microsoft Word or into any MS Office application where your insertion point happens to reside.

I prefer writing in the Writing Pad window because it has options that allow me to control and practice my penmanship. You can write directly into your Word documents, or you can write into Outlook, PowerPoint, and Excel. It even works in Access. It works in the entire Office XP productivity suite! And that's Microsoft's plan.

The End of the Desktop PC?

What is Microsoft up to? Does it want to kill the desktop PC? Of course not.

Just as many of us are sad to see keyboarding declining in importance, Microsoft must be sad to see the desktop PC going the way of the punch card. After all, the desktop PC made Microsoft what it is today. But consumers have spoken over the past two years through slumping desktop sales and have moved to laptops in increasing numbers. Consumersare tired of the big, bulky desktop computers of the past. So, to enhance the portable, mobile experience, Microsoft has formed partnerships with companies like Acer, Compaq, Fujitsu, NEC, Intel, and Toshiba to produce Tablet PC's. Sony, QBE, and Hewlett-Packard already have models. (We purchased the Acer.) The Tablet PC is a new form factor, or style of computer, that Microsoft hopes will become a monumental consumer hit. After all, making laptops more user-friendly has always been a worthy goal.

Bill Gates spoke to this plan at Comdex 2001 in November. "The PC took computing out of the back office and into everyone's office," said Gates. "The Tablet takes cutting-edge PC technology and makes it available wherever you want it, which is why I'm already using a Tablet as my everyday computer. It's a PC that is virtually without limits -- and within five years I predict it will be the most popular form of PC sold in America." (Bill Gates Keynote Speech, Comdex 2001, downloaded from HTTP://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2001/.

The New Computer Instructional Paradigm

The implications of the Tablet PC announcement are resonating through the educational system. In summary:

No longer is keyboarding the primary input gateway to computer literacy. The new gateways to computer literacy are:

1. penmanship
2. reading aloud
3. old-fashioned enunciation
4. some keyboarding

Welcome back to the future. To use computers effectively today, students must learn the ageless basics. Elementary students must learn to read aloud confidently, pronounce words clearly, and write in cursive or printed letters. These are basic skills in which every teacher rejoices. The back-to-basics movement now has technology on its side. Finally we have a technology that matches our highest educational goals.

This is enough to make every K-3 teacher jump for joy. No longer are their painstaking efforts to teach students to write clearly and legibly so easily discounted by later keyboarding instruction. And, much to their delight, those of us that have allowed our penmanship skills to slip through years of continuous typing, will also need to return to these basics.

Elementary keyboarding programs will now begin to disappear. There is no time for it. By the time the current crop of elementary students reach college or the job market, typing will no longer matter. Can there be any doubt that everything in computer education will be transformed within the next 5 years? Instead of hours of endless tapping away on the home row, elementary students should practice their penmanship, reading, and enunciation skills using Tablet PCs, because these are the skills they will need in the future.

There will be a protracted 3-year debate about how costly this transition will be and how we can't stop teaching keyboarding until all keyboards have disappeared everywhere. Albeit, the end result is inevitable and visionary views will prevail. One district administrator put it this way, "How many precious instructional hours are currently wasted in Elementary schools teaching typing which can be put to better use teaching reading, science, or math. We have to look at the opportunity cost of continued keyboarding." (I would add that more time needs to be spent in old-fashioned penmanship practice.)

A long time ago, an executive at WordPerfect told me that the biggest barrier to the miniaturization of computers was the keyboard. In his view, until the keyboard could be eliminated, computers, even portables, would continue to be large and bulky devices. Now that this barrier to computer miniaturization has been removed, computers will become smaller, sleeker, faster, and better than ever. All this is thanks to speech and handwriting recognition software that has been created by Microsoft, Plantronics, Wacom, ScanSoft, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and IBM ViaVoice. As educators, we owe these and other high-tech companies a huge debt of gratitude for this monumental educational reform.

Book Combines Handwriting and Speech Training

Course Technology™ has a new book that integrates speech with handwriting recognition instruction. The book will allow you to train your students for Tablet PCs even with existing equipment. Visit the Books section at Speaking Solutions to learn more.

Summary: The New Rules of Computer Literacy

Students should be taught to use speech recognition for anything that requires speed and accuracy. When students are unable to speak, such as when they are in a class taking notes, they should be taught to use handwriting recognition.

The bottom line is this . . . many keyboards will become idle by the end of this decade for increasingly large numbers of peopleand they learn the efficiencies of speech and handwriting recognition tools. Oh, there will still be keyboards quietly clicking around old legacy systems. (And the old ways die hard. I know of a school, which shall remain nameless, that finally replaced their typing class typewriters in 2001.)

There will be a rapidly increasing number of applications for handwriting and speech-recognition users that will simply not work using the keyboard. And there simply will not be enough time in the instructional day for the traditional semester-long keyboarding course. A more balanced approach teaching all of the input technologies will replaced that traditional keyboarding model as more and more schools adopt the DigiTools concept -- were all of the input technologies are taught in connection with the essential computer application software packages.

The keyboard were probably never disappear completely. For a few, the keyboard will remain an important part of their computing reality. As one sage Special Education Director observed, "The keyboard will become an accommodation we use for a few students with special handicaps which prevent them from speaking clearly or handwriting legibly."

Resolving the Wrist Pad Dilemma

And now back to my perplexing problem. What do I do with my spongy wrist pad now that I no longer type?

I've just leaned on the answer. My wrist pad has found a permanent home on my desk. I'm finding myself resting my elbows on the pad as I think, speak, and lean against my desk while looking out my window voice-writing this article.

It's a beautiful day in Springville, because it's about to snow. For everyone in Utah, this is a good thing. After all, the Olympics are coming and we need the snow. And thanks to my new "elbow" pad, I can enjoy looking out my window at the impending storm while speaking this article with NaturallySpeaking into Word and editing the pages online with my new digital pen and Microsoft's handwriting recognition.

This powerful combination of tools has changed my entire outlook on computer education. I find myself leaning on my elbow pad thinking about all the students that will benefit from these technological breakthroughs. I am grateful that my kids have a chance to learn these technologies this semester.

You gotta' love technology -- and elbow pads.