Adding two elements to Google Docs can help make students more independent when writing. You want to make sure students are logged into Drive AND Google Chrome when completing these steps since the changes will take affect only within the account that is currently active.
- First, within Google Docs click on "Add-ons" and "Get Add-ons".
2. Search for Speech Recognition in the search field for add-ons. Next to the add-on called "Speech Recognition", click the "Free" button to add it to Google Docs. (You may have to allow Pop-Ups in order to install this add-on).
3. Accept the terms and conditions. The add-on will be installed into Google Docs. Within Google Docs, click on "add-ons" > "Speech Recognition" > "Start" to enable the feature.
4. A right side panel will appear with a microphone icon. Click the start button to begin. It will prompt you to "allow" access to the microphone within the browser. Click "Allow".
5. You may choose to connect an external microphone headset or use your internal microphone of your computer if it is adequate. Click "Start", speak your sentence (including punctuation if you like), and click "Stop" when you are finished. The text will be added to your Google Doc automatically. You still have the ability to use your mouse to edit the document for slight mistakes if needed.