[Athen] voice to text recorders

[Wink Harner]

Morning ATHENites,

There are several different recorders which do what Dan has recommended.
The SONY version which is packaged with DNS 9.0 works well with their software.
There are others which are designed as stand alone voice to text units. Panasonic
offers one; Sony offers one; Olympus offers one. All come with proprietary
software which "translates" (promotional term used in the ads) speech to
text. This sort of recorder works best for lecture-type situations when one
speaker predominates. It has a limited mic range and does not work well with
large groups of individual speakers. We have a Panasonic Speech to Text digital
recorder at our college. But, as with most things, some folks really like
it, and some whine. You can, as my dad used to say, please some of the people
some of the time. My recommendation is to buy one on an experimental basis
and find a willing prof. to wear the mic in lecture class for a couple of
weeks. Most are in the $50-75 range --pretty affordable. Get a student worker
or one of the folks from your AT lab to collect the material off the recorder
and see for yourselves how well it works. Or better, get one and enlist one
of your students taking a lecture class and ask him to try it out & report
back. Our students have found the transcription acceptable as an alternative
to a notetaker in a lecture class.

BIG DISCLAIMER: nothing is perfect!

Hope this information was helpful. Google Amazon for Speech to Text Recorders
and you'll get a whole bunch of the recorders next to one another for comparison
purposes. You can then shop around for the best price on the model you think
might work the best for you. 

Blessings

Wink
Ms. Wink Harner
Manager
Disability Resources & Services
Mesa Community College
Mesa AZ

>-- Original Message --

>Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 10:11:41 -0400

>From: "Berkowitz, Daniel J" <djbrky at bu.edu>

>To: "Access Technologists in Higher Education Network" <athen at athenpro.org>,

>	"Access Technologists in Higher Education Network" <athen at athenpro.org>

>Subject: Re: [Athen] voice to text recorders

>Reply-To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network <athen at athenpro.org>

>

>

>EnableMart carries what you are looking for:

> 

>Convert your recorded files into text in one easy step using Sony's Digital

>Voice Recorders with included Dragon Naturally Speaking(tm) voice recognition

>software! These custom packages include a full version of Dragon with headset

>and manuals along with a digital recorder specifically selected for the

home,

>business, and medical user.

> 

>http://www.enablemart.com/productDetail.aspx?pid=901&dept=78&store=10 <http://www.dragon-medical-transcription.com/PDA1.html>

>

> 

> 

> 

> 

>========================= 

>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 <mailto:djbrky at bu.edu>  (eMail) 

>www.bu.edu/disability 

>

>________________________________

>

>From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org on behalf of Frances G Smith/AC/VCU

>Sent: Thu 3/29/2007 9:45 AM

>To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network

>Subject: Re: [Athen] voice to text recorders

>

>

>

>Yes...I've had that exact question. The latest version of Naturally Speaking

>is a huge improvement for training voice files and, if a wav file is recorded,

>Naturally Speaking allows for seamless transcription. However, recording

>more than one voice in this wav file does not yield similar results. I've

>been looking for this technology but I don't think it has yet to surface...would

>be nice. 

>

>Frances G. Smith, Ed.S.,CVE

>Technology Coordinator, VDOE Training & Technical Assistance Center @ VCU

> 

>Director - INFUSIO Technology Lab, School of Education

>10 E. Franklin St., Ste. 200 | PO Bx 843081

>Richmond, VA 23284-3081

>http://www.vcu.edu/ttac

>http://www.soe.vcu.edu/infusio

>O- 804-827-1406 (M,W,Th,F) | O-804-828-8160 (Tu)

>F- 804-828-6947

>fgsmith at vcu.edu

>

>"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the

>affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even

>one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

> Ralph Waldo Emerson

>

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Ms. Wink Harner
Manager
Disability Resources & Services
Mesa Community College
Mesa AZ

480-461-7447