Why Parents Should Worry About Office 365's Immersive Reader Dictation Feature

At some point, dictation moves from a shortcut to a productivity aid. But when? Microsoft appears to be making that choice for you.

- Mark Hachman

Beginning in February, Microsoft started offering a new feature for young students called Immersive Reader dictation within Office 365 apps for Windows and the Mac. As a parent of two elementary school students, though, I’m concerned that this feature which brings smartphone-style voice dictation to traditional desktop apps—will be an unwelcome crutch.

It’s not just on Windows, either. Microsoft is pushing dictation onto Word for Mac, iPhone, Outlook Desktop, OneNote iPad, and OneNote Mac.

Even though I write about technology for a living, I’m sort of feeling my way through applying it toward parenting. Is a smart speaker an annoyance or a learning aid? Do I need to place hardwired parental controls on my kids’ screen time, or can I just check up on them? And when do I need to have “the talk” about using the computer to solve problems that my kids are struggling with?

For example, my oldest is currently writing three collaborative stories, for fun, using Google Apps’ similar dictation feature (go.pcworld.com/dcgd). (Immersive Reader is probably Microsoft’s attempt to catch up.) My son doesn’t see dictation as a crutch, but as a convenience.