Preparing Your Lab for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 6 Instruction
By Karl Barksdale
Speaking Solutions, Inc. © 2002
Step 1: If your hardware is working properly, speech instruction is a snap. Make sure you are running at least 128 MB of RAM on a Pentium III 500 or higher processor, or you won't have much luck running Microsoft Office and speech at the same time. In fact, on early Pentium III processors, 256 MB of RAM makes a big difference. If you are running a fast Pentium III 1.2 gigahertz processor or higher, 128 MB of RAM is usually enough. If you have a low memory configuration or slower processors, stick with DragonPad. You'll need to skip a few exercises, but your students WILL learn the basics with DragonPad.
Step 2: Test each soundcard with your headsets. You may find some bad soundcards or a bad headset. If your sound cards are bad, I may need to go USB on your headsets. If you suspect a headset, try it on a computer you know works. This will tell you if the headset is working or not. You may also find that your techies have turned off some of the audio features in Windows which may interfere with speech recognition. Instructions for testing sound cards can be found in Lesson 2 in the Nifty Fifty or online at http://www.speakingsolutions.com/dragon/traindns6/capsules/tc2.htm
Step 3: The techies will want to create an image, a single "master" hard drive that contains the typical computer all students should have as they begin working. Creating images and copying these images to each computer in a lab is a great way to manage large numbers of computers.
Speech software like NaturallySpeaking must run off of the hard drive. Techies usually don't have any problems having an application run off the hard drive; for example, Windows usually runs off of the hard drive. What techies have trouble with is not being able to refresh a machine back to its original state for each new user. Thankfully, ScanSoft took care of this with its Dragon NaturallySpeaking 6.0 IMPORT-EXPORT feature.
The IMPORT-EXPORT feature allows for a consistent copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking to be imaged to every computer in the lab. Users can then EXPORT changes in their user file to the network safely, and download their user file before the next session. This way, lab computers can be refreshed to their original state at the end of each users' session and the lab can be reimaged, whenever the techies feel it is necessary, without losing user profiles.
When setting up their master image on their master computer, the installation order is important in order to install a proper Speech Application Programming Interface (SAPI) for whatever speech program is being used. The SAPI is a Microsoft set of tools that enables speech recognition to work in Windows and Office. There are various versions of the SAPI, so to get the right one, the installation order is important.
1. Install Windows and all upgrades.
2. Install Office and all upgrades.
3. Install XP handwriting recognition (if you're using that).
4. Install Dragon NaturallySpeaking, IBM ViaVoice, or Microsoft Office XP Speech Recognition last!
OPTIONAL STEP 4: Students can easily access the IMPORT-EXPORT feature by clicking NATURALLYSPEAKING, MANAGE USERS; but I set up things to make it even easier for the students.
On the master machine, I create two "dummy" users. One was a profile that tested a USB headset and the other was a test for an analog headset. I named these user files "Choose Your User Profile!" and "Make Sure You Choose Your File!" With two dummy files created, the MANAGE USERS dialog box always appears as Dragon starts up. This makes it easy for students to IMPORT and EXPORT or create any NEW user files as needed. Because all of these options are found on the MANAGE USERS dialog box -- students can't miss it! (Note: You DON'T need to read the entire training story. simply do the audio check section, then you can close out. This creates a dummy user file without taking any time at all.)
Step 5: Students must be taught immediately by their instructors how to EXPORT and IMPORT their user files from their network folder. This way, when the computer is reimaged, or changed back to its original state at the end of a user session, the user profile is safe on the server. A set of instructions on how to IMPORT and EXPORT files can be found at www.SpeakingSolutions.com/resources. Scroll down to the tips of the month and choose EXPORT YOUR USER FILE, or go directly to this link
http://www.speakingsolutions.com/resources/mar2002.htm
We found that importing user profiles only took a few seconds at the beginning of the session. This setup isn't very complicated, and it solves a lot of problems: the network people can have total security on the machine, the user doesn't lose updates to their user file, and the techies don't have to install a copy of Dragon on each computer.
One quick note to your installation team: If they are updating or reinstalling Dragon, it's best to COMPLETELY uninstall any previous versions and any OLD USER FILES. Then update to 6.0. This way you will get rid of all of the old settings.