Note taking at Uni

flossy_splodge

My nephew wants a voice activated recorder to use at Uni.
I have found an excellent price for an Olympus but hehas now told his Mum that he wants, and I quote, the Olympus with Voice recognition so that he can just connect it to his computer and his notes will appear typed without any need for him to be involved.:rotfl:
As far as I can find out, in fact you have to decide on your recorder first, then separately purchase eg Dragon Naturally speaking (student version available at just under £100) and put the two together yourself.:cool:
Does anyone know differently?
He thinks he can get the whole deal (recorder AND Voice recognition software) for about £110.
Any feedback more than welcome.
(Leaves me imagining a lecture room just full of rows of recording devices......:rotfl:).

davester

I never used one, but i think it might depend on the class and the teaching style of the lectures. My lectures provided already written notes to compliment any I made in class which was normally just a few lines. Some lecturers can be funny about you recording them as well , School and University are different entities, College was the closer than school.
Personally set aside some money for it. Wait till he has been there for a month to see if he really needs one.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Here & here comes with Dragon

- not sure if it comes with the full [ not trial ] version
- but its a starting point for you !

[Deleted User]

I used the Notebook 3000 with Biro 2.1 upgrade.

In all seriousness, all these gadgets and doodads just serve to distract students. My ex-boyfriend used to browse the internet while in class, or else he was talking to me on instant messaging. That's in the lessons he was even allowed to use it (some lecturers know exactly what the students are using their laptops for).

When I was in class, only one kid brought a laptop, and he spent every lecture picking his ear with his pen while watching Friends DVDs. Everyone else used the written materials handed out in 90% of lectures, supplemented by the online material you could access at home. Extra stuff was easily jotted down by hand.

You'd do better to buy him a book on learning shorthand.

RobTang

Voice rec really isn't that good for entended conversations.
In lectures forget about it, it wont pick up what the lecurer is saying and you'll look silly talking in lectures.

Even just plain recording i had a few issues, it really depends on the lecture hall.

Personally ive tried everything from, videoing the thing to e-ink to proper tablet PC, and well ..... you really cant beat a pen and a pad of paper.

gonzo127

agreed if its anything like the lectures i went too, voice recording isnt helpful as you are bound to have a few people chatting somewhere around you which can over-ride the lecturers voice

best thing i found is to actually write down your own notes with pen and paper, then hook up with one of your mates after class and swap notes to fill in the gaps and go over bits you didnt understand etc whilst typing up your notes nice and neat,

DVardysShadow

flossy_splodge wrote: »

My nephew wants a voice activated recorder to use at Uni ....
(Leaves me imagining a lecture room just full of rows of recording devices......:rotfl:).

Indeed. The important thing is not so much to capture the words as they are spoken as to capture the understanding as it is all delivered.

Lil306

I'm inclined to agree with the above statements, most likely what will happen due to sensitivitiy of the microphones is it will pick up all the background noise from other people chatting. Fair enough they use an MP3 or something to record the entire lecture whilst taking notes, it's good to remind them. However, purely for the use of automatically entering their text won't work

BTW, Dragon Naturally speaking has to be "taught" so to speak, I don't know if the latest versions have lots of intelligence in them, but the previous copies I've used you have to teach them to understand your voice, as such they would only work with the person speaking and believe me it takes a LONNNNNNNNG time to train it.

eamon

I can recall a cartoon sketch of a lecture hall full of tape recorders and the lecturer replaced by a tape player.

davester

if i had used one it would have been a muffled lecturer with a bhangra backing track. needless to say the lecturer got really mad, and the student was expelled. It was one liberty too many

littlepanther

Does he want someone to sit his exams too?

Most lecturers provide notes.

As mentioned probably wont work very well in a lecture.