There’s a lot of uncertainty right now about teaching in the age of AI — a lot of stuff we don’t know.
But there is one AI tool that I can say, in an uncomplicated way, has made my life better.
And it’s both a writing trick and a time saver for teachers.
My very favorite thing that AI has brought into my life in recent years is that is provides a whole new way to both capture ideas in writing and to review written work.
I’m going to give you an example of both — plus my biggest tip for how to do voice-to-text in a way that is most usable when you go back to read it.
Trick #1: Capturing Your Ideas with Voice-to-Text
There are many ways to do this, but I use Google Docs from my phone. Here’s how it works:
- Open the Google Docs app.
- Start a new document, or open an ongoing document for a project you’re working on.
- Tap the little microphone button at the bottom corner of the screen.
Instead of typing — which is slower and forces you to look down at your phone the whole time — you just speak.
The Key to Making Voice-to-Text Actually Usable
Here’s the most important thing I’ve learned through experience: speak your punctuation and line breaks out loud.
When you’re recording, your voice will probably sound a little awkward. The rhythm will be off. It won’t sound like normal conversation.
But that’s okay. You’re not having a conversation!
Your recording might sound something like this: “I’m recording voice-to-text to try to capture my ideas, period. New line, pretty cool, right, question mark.”
If you don’t do this, your notes can read like an incoherent ramble — even when really they’re full of good ideas!
This is a trick you can pass on to your students, and it also works as a pure idea-capture tool for yourself.
You don’t need to have a natural speech rhythm when you’re doing voice-to-text. It’s more important to speak clearly and make sure the punctuation and line breaks will make things clear to you later.
Why This Matters in the Age of AI
One of the constant issues is that the speed AI offers can make it very tempting to sign on to thoughts that aren’t really your thoughts.
That’s a problem for students.
It’s also a problem for you as a teacher.
So I’m very grateful for any way that AI can help me speed up my own actual thought process, rather than replacing it.
Trick #2: Using Text-to-Voice to Proofread Your Writing
It’s very common advice to tell writers to read their work out loud to hear how it sounds.
That can be good advice.
But sometimes reading your own work is distracting. Some people don’t like their own reading voice. And if you have multiple pages of writing, reading out loud can get exhausting.
My solution: I take something I’ve typed up and have AI read it out loud to me — sometimes even at a higher-than-normal speed.
It’s a quick way to hear how my writing sounds, and it’s a slightly different experience than reading your work on paper. It catches different things.
I think this is completely fair game for students, too. It’s a way of checking the quality and clarity of your writing.
And it’s not cheating — it’s just a new and creative way to proofread.
How to Do This in Microsoft Word
To be clear, you don’t have do to this in Microsoft Word. The AI voices on Microsoft Word, at least as of this writing, aren’t very good.
There are some very realistic AI voice programs available, and in time you may find it worthwhile to invest in one.
But I already had Microsoft Word, and Word already had this feature. So when it first occurred to me that I might like to listen to something I’d written while also folding laundry, I didn’t have to go looking for a new system. I just plugged in a document and had Word read it back to me.
That’s why in the video above, I used Microsoft Word.
You, too, probably already have access to technology that can read aloud to you.
The Bottom Line
I certainly have my moments of worry about what AI technology is going to do to our lives — I’m sure you do too. But voice-to-text idea capture and text-to-voice proofreading are two things I am thoroughly enjoying, and I hope you find them helpful.