I have been away for a week so someone may have already answered this,
and I haven't yet read my way through the other 70 odd dis-forum
messages waiting in my in box.
Here are 'my four pennies worth' on the subject.
Dragon for all its faults is a program designed for business use and not
necessarily designed for student use. It is primarily designed for
offices where the user is likely to say approximately they same thing
again and again throughout the day after a while all the language to be
used, (with the exception of peoples names) by a user will have been
said corrected and polished so that the program works well, or at least
close to the claimed speed on the side of the box. In the case of
students using Dragon they will be forever talking about new things and
often without the repeated uses of terms and phrases that would be
common in a business environment. The program works and it often works
very well but there are limitations on how well the program works in all
circumstances, with different people and places.
I have tried with Dragon 9 and will keep trying with Dragon 10 to get a
digital recording to transcribe a lecture. So far it hasn't worked it is
generally gibberish if it works at all. The use of transcription with a
digital recorder is meant to be used with a reduced command set just
comers new line and the odd full stop to get a rough document when the
user is away from their main computer.
I have heard rumours that automatic transcription is being worked on but
so far I haven't seen anything to suggest that it will be with us in the
next 3-5 years. It is I have been told just to complex a task to
separate the different speakers identify them and then transcribe what
is going on.
I have seen the prices for transcription services and personally I think
that they are often too high for the DSA market, approximately 1 UK
pound a minute for each minute of recording, for a one 3 hour lecture
that's 180 uk pounds. The prices vary but it can be expensive long term
Here some links to the ones I have looked at in the past
http://www.ibtranscriptionservices.co.uk/lectures.htm
http://www.uktranscription.com//index.html
Regards
Graham Rice, Technician
Central London Assessment Services (CLASS)
University of Westminster
72 Great Portland Street
London W1W 7NH
Tel: +44 020 7915 5428 (direct line)
Fax: +44 020 7911 5162
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-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Karen Farmer
Sent: 04 September 2008 08:56
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Transcription
To reply to Tim Symons
Actually, as an assessor AND a Dragon user, I'd say that Dragon (up to
and including 9, since I haven't tried 10 yet) isn't spectacularly good
at anything... it "falls over and dies", as you so quaintly describe
it, at just about any hurdle, which is why I tend to recommend it as
little as possible - since I don't want to be sued for causing terminal
frustration in the student (joking, but there are days when this feels
like it could be true).
VRS is a lovely concept, and when ALL the problems are resolved no doubt
it will be wonderful, but there are so many factors (user
fatigue/endless microphone (re)positioning etc) that reduce accuracy
that it's rarely fully effective, let alone a magic wand.
Yes, I certainly do meet students who think that Dragon will take the
entire lecture straight off a digital recording, however if they thought
that when they came in, they won't be thinking it when they go out...
Used creatively though - with the user listening to the recording and
then dictating THAT into Dragon, it is possible (though time consuming)
to transcribe the entire lecture using Dragon - but why would you want
to? Ensuring that the student has effective note taking skills would
make a lot more sense, the technology should be a supplement to that -
not a replacement for it, otherwise the student will end up with notes
the size of telephone directories and revision will be a nightmare.
And please, with regard to your final comment - let's not get to finger
pointing, eh? It's so unhelpful.
K
Karen Farmer
DSA Needs Assessor
Professional & Academic Development (PAD)
University of Bedfordshire
Park Square, Luton
LU1 3HZ
Tel: 01582 74 3422
Internal ext: 3422
Fax: 01582 489349
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