[athen] recording lectures via mp3 players for use on web

[Berkowitz, Daniel J]

Though the audio of the podcast may be an issue - we are seeing
companies sprout up around the web that will do provide transcripts for
a nominal fee. It is simply a matter of providing multiple formats for
users to access. An excellent (and simple) example of how this can work
and how it may look is the Security Now! Podcast site:
http://www.grc.com/SecurityNow.htm

BTW - I highly recommend this podcast for us professionals. 


 
=========================
Daniel Berkowitz - Assistant Director
Boston University Office of Disability Services
19 Deerfield Street, 2nd floor
Boston, MA 02215
 
(617) 353-3658 (office)
(617) 353-9646 (fax)
djbrky at bu.edu (eMail)
www.bu.edu/disability
 


>-----Original Message-----

>From: athen-bounces at lists.oregonstate.edu [mailto:athen-

>bounces at lists.oregonstate.edu] On Behalf Of Kathleen Cahill

>Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 11:52 AM

>To: Nick Ogrizovich III; athen at lists.oregonstate.edu

>Subject: Re: [athen] recording lectures via mp3 players for use on web

>

>Hi Nick;

>

>Check out Liberated Learning (www.liberatedlearning.com).   It's based

at

>St. Mary's University in Nova Scotia.  They are using IBM Products (Via

>Voice among others) to convert spoken lectures to digital format and

are

>willing to partner with other universities.

>

>I am quite concerned, along with many of you, about the accessibility

of

>podcasts.  MIT is exploring the use of iTunes to distribute files of

>on-campus events, both audio and video.  I am quite concerned about the

>lack of accessibility of the audio and video to deaf/hoh people as well

as

>concerned about the inaccessibility of iTunes itself as a program.

In

>addition, some iTunes files are of a proprietary format (AAC) that

cannot

>be played on other, more accessible podcasting software or players.

>

>An MIT professor, Jim Glass, is conducting research to convert audio

files

>into digitized text via speech recognition technology and we are hoping

>that may prove to be a useful tool in the conversion from spoken word

to

>digitized and searchable text.  Someone also mentioned a company called

>Podzinger (www.podzinger.com) which uses speech recognition technology

to

>convert podcasts to digitized format and make them searchable.

>

>I'd enjoy talking more about this issue and exchanging information with

>others who are also interested.

>

>Thanks,

>Kathy

>

>

>

>At 10:35 AM 2/22/2006, Nick Ogrizovich III wrote:

>>There's a lot of interest from professors wishing to podcast, or

>>otherwise post mp3 versions of their lectures on the web in Vermont

>>all of a sudden. Good.

>>

>>Being the Universal Design proponent I am, I want to encourage this.

>>Of course, this approach totally leaves the deaf/hard of hearing

>>students out of the loop. I am curious if anyone has ever tried

>>running a sound file through dragon, to see if it recognized

>>anything? What if the speech file was from someone who trained dragon

>>extensively?

>>

>>Some profs may even be willing to train dragon, and this would be an

>>interesting way to get transcripts right away. Otherwise, we would be

>>looking at using students to transcibe, or possibly send the files to

>>india. (.50 /minute +)

>>

>>As for the technology side of it, it seems ipods in general are a

>>difficult way to do this. The newest ipods (5th gen) apparently do

>>not even have a line in, so many of the mics (griffin, belkin, etc)

>>no longer work. I looked up creative, and they have a few models that

>>still have a line in, but to use a mic with that, you would have to

>>use a powered mic. (Profs prefer a lapel mike.)

>>

>>It seems the easiest way to do this would be to buy a really cheap

>>digital voice recorder, lapel mic, and then convert the wma or wav

>>files to mp3, and then post those. You would have the benefit of a

>>high quality sound to use for dragon attempts, too.

>>

>>Anyone else ever come across this yet? I've heard from MIT the

>>concerns for the Deaf, but I'm hopeful that this will be remedied one

>>way or another. I'm curious what others have done. Or if there's a

>>portable mp3 player out there with a bonafide mic in that doesn't

>>need to be line level. (powered)

>>

>>Thanks,

>>

>>Nick Ogrizovich

>>University of Vermont

>>

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>

>Kathleen Cahill

>MIT ATIC (Adaptive Technology) Lab

>77 Mass. Ave. 7-143

>Cambridge MA 02139

>(617) 253-5111

>kcahill at mit.edu

>

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