Steno education: facing the changes in the reporting field?

1
Steno educationfacing the changes in the
reporting field?

• Beijing August 2009
• Gian Paolo Trivulzio

2
To days technologies
Technology What Transcript
Shorthand Speech capturing With keyboarding or speech recognition
Summary With keyboarding or speech recognition
Keyboarding Speech capturing up to 220 syllables (average Helena Matouskova up to 270) Only revision
Transcript from digital recording
Stenotype Speech capturing also in realtime Automatic only revision. Possible syncro to digital recording (audio and video)
Speech recognition Speech capturing up to realtime. By use replacement of Keyboarding for transcribing from digital recording Automatic only revision syncro with audio.
3
To days technologies (2)
Technology What Transcript
Audio recording only Captions for hearing impaired persons.

Only video recording Captions for hearing impaired persons



4
In the last decades, reporting activities were
mainly influence by

• Audio recording

• Internet
• communication

5
Audio digital recording replaced tapes and
cassettes,
implemented the use of keyboarding and opened
new ways of producing records, thanks to easy
recording on any computer, and easy transfer via
Internet
6
Audio digital recording

• On the computer or on a portable device, helps
  for checking transcript
• The recording can be automatically split in
  various segments to be delivered to different
  reporters
• Digital recording is now fully integrated with
  stenomachine transcripts, which automatically
  creates a link between the steno strokes and the
  relevant audio position

7
Also traditional shorthand can take advange of
digital recording thanks to portable pen which
creates links to steno outlines (Livescribe with
Anoto paper)
8
A simple demo of how it works
9
What you write can be trasferred to a computer
keeping the link between written words and
relevant sound
10
Since 1995 digitalization made speech
recognition a reality, the voice of the speaker
is automatically transcribed (speaker dependent
technology)
11
Thus creating to a new way of reporting in
realtime (respeaking)
12
Improvements in speaker independent technology,
open the door to automatic transcript of speeches

• This was announced during the Intersteno Congress
  in Wien (2005) by Dott Gianni Lazzari
• Here in Beijing we have a report of Prof. Tatsuya
  Kawahara of Tokio University, about automatic
  transcript at the Japanese Parliament.
• Another report of Dott Gianni Lazzari will be
  published in the final printed report of our
  Congress and it deals with

13
a transcript service already in use in Italy
since 1 year for creating

• Transcripts of
• court sessions
• national regional and municipal sessions
• Congress speeches
• video news
• Digital audio files are uploaded via Internet to
  a server which automatically handles the process

14
All these important improvements generated new
reporting possibilities

• Distant reporting, sending digital files to one
  or several reporters
• Distance reporting in real-time, reducing costs
  of transferring people
• Reporting in foreign languages made easily
  available
• Real-time subtitling of school lessons for
  helping hearing impaired persons (also in
  distance places)
• TV subtitling in batch process or real-time

15
WHICH IS THE BEST TECHNOLOGY?
?

• A useless question

16

• In my opinion it is useless to discuss which is
  the best technology
• Because a technology has a real value only if we
  have the right persons who can give the best
  results in its use
• And this is accomplished if they have the
  background of a valuable education.

17
A few examples

• Shorthand is still the most used technology in
  Brazil Parliamentary, Regional Assemblies and
  Court thanks to good teaching from two important
  institutes
• Also in Germany, shorthand is still a traditional
  way of reporting, and the Association of
  Parliamentary Stenographer helds training courses
  for attaining the speed needed for doing a good
  job
• In Italy shorthand is considered to be a valid
  instrument for summary reporting, joined with a
  transcript by speech recognition

18
In USA

• A strong request from NCRA Association succeeded
  in having the government offering consistent
  support to schools for training good real time
  reporters
• NCRA offered 1 year education free plan to young
  people testing distance teaching techiques (a
  report on this experience will be released
  during the Conference session)
• NCRA and NVRA set rules to approve schools and
  professional

19
In China and Korea

• Hundred of schools are teaching stenotype
  technique, which is also used as a replacement of
  traditional complicated keyboarding.

20
Education is needed but

• Students can no more invest many years in
  learning and training
• Real time ability becomes an important assets
• Managers of reporting services must be assured
  for the continuity of their staff and the
  relevant investements in recruitement, training
  and technologies
• The final goal is to have higher quantities of
  good reporters

21
Therefore we have to deeply rethink about our
didactic approach

• Reconsidering the support we can get from
  technology and psicology
• Being aware of the goals we have to set and the
  motivation we have to implement
• Being convinced that we must be able to work in
  a cooperation environments with other trainers
  and teachers
• Knowing that young people to-day are already able
  to use electronics and informatics better than us

22
Remembering that life is long

• So we must have a vision on at least the next
  5/10 years of evolution in our field
• Being prepared to support long life and
  continuous education, which involves many
  psicologycal and practical aspects. Not everybody
  is willing to change habits, especially if they
  are imposed from a restructuring of the working
  environements and these changes are not well
  explained and planned

23
The down of a new approach
24
A big opportunity, Intersteno helps to face the
future
25
Who am I?

• Learn shorthand in 1951
• National champion 80 words (200 syllables) in
  1955
• Second at national championships at 100 words
  (250 syllables) in 1956
• First place at the championships during the
  Intersteno Milano Congress 1957 (120 w.pm. 300
  syllables)
• National Champions at 130 words (320 syllables)
  in 1964
• 300 syllables at Intersteno Paris Congress 1965
• Second place Intersteno Congress in Bern 1967
• Yearly participation in Swiss championships up to
  year 2000 (320 syllables with speech recognition)
• And many others

26
Teaching and training experiences

• State certified teacher in shorthand (4 steno
  systems) 1960
• State certificied teacher in typewriting 1960
• Teaching of steno and typewriting at IDI Milano
  
• Teaching history and didactis for steno and
  typewriter people willing to become teacher (1960
  1990)
• Teaching of steno applied to English and French
  to Scuola Interpreti in Milano (interpretation
  school)
• Teaching of stenotype (Grandjean) Milano
  1967-70
• Training in informatics from 1975 till 1990
• Teaching of Michela stenotype in Milano 1990
• Teaching reporting tecniques with
  Melani-Stenotype system and Mael-Gornati
  stenotype system 1992-1995
• Many training courses on reporting for Public
  Administrations
• Teaching of speech recognition tecniques ( 1997/
  2004)

27
Experiences in reporting

• From 1955 till 1963 free lance reporter in
  Milano. Reporter of many Congresses and lectures
  on voluntary or paid occasions.
• From 1990 to 1999 associated partner of
  Dettoscritto s.r.l. a reporting company for
  courts and assemblies with 20 reporters using
  steno machines and keyboarding, supported by a
  net of computers and with high speed transfer of
  digital sound files from Courts to central
  office. (at that time ISDN technology, the only
  available)
• Coordinator of a project of CAT system with
  Michela stenotype