Steno education:facing the changes in the

reporting field?

Beijing August 2009Gian Paolo Trivulzio

To day’s 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.

To day’s technologies (2)

Technology What Transcript

Audio recording only Captions for hearing impaired persons.

Only video recording Captions for hearing impaired persons

In the last decades, reporting activities were mainly influence by

Audio recording Internetcommunication

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

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

Also traditional shorthand can take advange of digital recording thanks to

portable pen which creates links to steno outlines

(Livescribe with Anoto paper)

A simple demo of how it works

What you write can be trasferred to a computer keeping the link between written words and relevant sound

Since 1995 digitalization made speech recognition a reality, the voice of the speaker is automatically transcribed

(speaker dependent technology)

Thus creating to a new way of reporting in realtime (respeaking)

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 …

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

Transcripts ofcourt sessionsnational – regional and municipal sessionsCongress speechesvideo news

Digital audio files are uploaded via Internet to a server which automatically handles the process

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

WHICH IS THE BEST TECHNOLOGY?A useless question

?

• 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.

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

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

In China and Korea

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

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

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

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

The down of a new approach

A big opportunity, Intersteno helps to face the future

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

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)

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