The Settler

Issue date: 9/17/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Chris Crankshaw The department of disability services offers students the service of digital recorders to assist them with classes.

With just the push of a button, students can record their professors' lectures.

The department of disability services is providing miniature recorders to students who are hearing-impaired or have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

There is no cost to students.

To qualify, students must be registered with the office of disability and be approved for the use of one.

These are just like standard tape, recorders minus the tape.

This means everything is digital and more compact.

The process begins with faculty members reading a short story for about 15 minutes in order to train the recorder to recognize their voice.

This enables a student to record a lecture and bring it back to the disabilities office where they plug the recorder into a computer.

The computer then recognizes the professor's voice and prints off a written transcript of what the professor said.

Garrett Westlake, coordinator of disability services, said when he first found out the disability office had received a $5,000 grant for new technology, he said "this would be fun to try out."

He also thinks "students will get more.

These [recorders] are supplements for taking notes.

It will be more beneficial to those who want to get all the information rather than those who sleep the class away."

The office is in a trial period with the recorders.

All 10 available recorders are currently checked out. They are currently only being used to record, not print the transcripts.

The department is still trying to get all faculty voices trained. When this is done, students will be able to have the printed version.Westlake said there is no set date for this.

He does expect that "by next semester all the kinks will be worked out."

Before this, students had to check out bulky tape recorders and only had the option to rewind and play back a lecture. With this development, students can have a written guide allowing a better understanding of the material.

Faculty members can use the recorders to get involved with pod-casts. This makes it easier to post a lecture. Using pod-casts gives a larger number of students the opportunity to go back and review a leson.

The recorders are only the first thing on Westlake's list of new technology he is "anxious to spend money on."

Westlake said the recorders cost around $100 each, and with the leftover grant money the disability office plans to buy additional computer software.

Also, they would like to purchace better software for creating accessible textbooks. Students will be able to scan textbooks on a computer, then make the lesson into an Mp3 file that they can listen to on an iPod or other Mp3 player.

"There is a real big emphasis lately in the disability services to use technology," said Westlake.

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