New technologies and telephones

[Don Carroll]

>2. Is there a way to record cell phone conversations?

There are phone recording devices that look something like a wrist watch (I
have one made by Sony) that can be strapped onto a receiver or a cell phone
but the quality is nowhere near the same as recording devices that split
the line.  For example, the voice of the person with the device on his/her
phone is much louder than the other speaker.   For class purposes I think I
would insist that they record off a "hard-line" phone somewhere.

Alternately, you can have 2-3 tape recorders (and recording devices) that
you check out to students over a three week period.

>3. And transcription technologies? (do I throw away those old transcription
>machines?)

Go digital.  After my students record telephone calls with the tape
recorders I provide, I digitize the files and then create a CD-ROM of all
the calls for each of the students.  This is our data base for the
class.  They can then transcribe using their preferred audio program -- I
use CoolEdit on the PC and Quciktime Pro on the Mac.

--Don