Making a Dragon Fly
The following post is by one of our students who we've been irritating with Dragon NaturallySpeaking over the past few months.
Certain misfortunes in my career have left me with numb hands, a circumstance which can slow me down with many activities of daily living - such things as buttoning my clothes, tying my shoes, and typing. As I am being trained to re-enter the workforce where I must use a computer to create stories as a freelancer, my vocational rehabilitation counselor hooked me up with the people at Zephyr-TEC to teach me how to type using Dragon Naturally Speaking.
Unfortunately, the training has proven so vexing that I have chosen to rename the program “The Dragon.” And he has become my nemesis.
In my mind I see The Dragon as a winged creature such as that described by J.R.R. Tolkein in “The Hobbit.”
Like Tolkein’s beast, Dragon Naturally Speaking can fly. The literature states that the program is capable of “flying” across the page at 160 words per minute when used successfully.
But using the program successfully takes a gargantuan amount of learning. My trainer, likened the process to learning a foreign language. She has demonstrated the patience of Job while my frustrations with The Dragon were expressed in anger, or boredom, or tears of frustration. “Arrrrrgh! Arrrrrgh! I can’t do this. I hate this. I will never learn this. I give up . . .”
Each time, she has brought the focus back to center. She has assured me that everyone has difficulty at first.
Still I think I may be somewhat of a trial, special case.
It has been especially difficult for me to learn.
Why? First because I'm slow.
“How slow?” you ask.
Glacially slow. Precambrian even.
Second because I have an almost Luddite dislike of all things high-tech.
Here's an example of both at work:
When ATM machines were first introduced at banks, it took me 10 years before I was willing to try them. The first times I used it I had to summon one of the tellers from inside the bank to walk me through it. Each young woman had this look on her face that suggested she wanted to ask me, “Which planet did you say you came from?”
I had a real difficulty using those machines until that fateful day I discovered that they would give me money. I liked that.
And sometimes the ATMs were confused. They would give me money even though I knew I had written more checks than the money available.
I was later to learn that I was the one who was confused.
These thoughts are given to presage the difficulties I have encountered as I absorbed the rudiments of using Dragon Naturally Speaking. The wizards at Zephyr-TEC, in concordance with the Career Counseling people, had begun my course of study with lofty goals. They sent me this huge box filled with all these workbooks to read to enable me to do anything with The Dragon, up to and probably including, rule the world.
After nearly two months those goals were refined. If I could just learn to write using The Dragon everybody could go home happy.
We're happy to report that Pam dictated this story using NaturallySpeaking. She has been able to make her Dragon fly!
To share your own experience, click on COMMENTS below
Certain misfortunes in my career have left me with numb hands, a circumstance which can slow me down with many activities of daily living - such things as buttoning my clothes, tying my shoes, and typing. As I am being trained to re-enter the workforce where I must use a computer to create stories as a freelancer, my vocational rehabilitation counselor hooked me up with the people at Zephyr-TEC to teach me how to type using Dragon Naturally Speaking.
Unfortunately, the training has proven so vexing that I have chosen to rename the program “The Dragon.” And he has become my nemesis.
In my mind I see The Dragon as a winged creature such as that described by J.R.R. Tolkein in “The Hobbit.”
Like Tolkein’s beast, Dragon Naturally Speaking can fly. The literature states that the program is capable of “flying” across the page at 160 words per minute when used successfully.
But using the program successfully takes a gargantuan amount of learning. My trainer, likened the process to learning a foreign language. She has demonstrated the patience of Job while my frustrations with The Dragon were expressed in anger, or boredom, or tears of frustration. “Arrrrrgh! Arrrrrgh! I can’t do this. I hate this. I will never learn this. I give up . . .”
Each time, she has brought the focus back to center. She has assured me that everyone has difficulty at first.
Still I think I may be somewhat of a trial, special case.
It has been especially difficult for me to learn.
Why? First because I'm slow.
“How slow?” you ask.
Glacially slow. Precambrian even.
Second because I have an almost Luddite dislike of all things high-tech.
Here's an example of both at work:
When ATM machines were first introduced at banks, it took me 10 years before I was willing to try them. The first times I used it I had to summon one of the tellers from inside the bank to walk me through it. Each young woman had this look on her face that suggested she wanted to ask me, “Which planet did you say you came from?”
I had a real difficulty using those machines until that fateful day I discovered that they would give me money. I liked that.
And sometimes the ATMs were confused. They would give me money even though I knew I had written more checks than the money available.
I was later to learn that I was the one who was confused.
These thoughts are given to presage the difficulties I have encountered as I absorbed the rudiments of using Dragon Naturally Speaking. The wizards at Zephyr-TEC, in concordance with the Career Counseling people, had begun my course of study with lofty goals. They sent me this huge box filled with all these workbooks to read to enable me to do anything with The Dragon, up to and probably including, rule the world.
After nearly two months those goals were refined. If I could just learn to write using The Dragon everybody could go home happy.
We're happy to report that Pam dictated this story using NaturallySpeaking. She has been able to make her Dragon fly!
To share your own experience, click on COMMENTS below
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