Apple@Work brings you Mosyle, Apple’s only unified platform. Mosyle is the only solution that fully integrates 5 different apps on one Apple-only platform, enabling businesses and schools to easily and automatically deploy, manage, and secure all of their Apple devices. More than 32,000 organizations use Mosyle solutions every day to automate the deployment, management, and security of millions of Apple devices. Request a FREE account today and find out how you can put your Apple fleet on autopilot at a price you can’t believe.
When lockdowns hit in 2020, schools rushed to virtual options to keep some semblance of “business as usual”. There were unintended consequences, and that was to be expected. However, one company’s unique solution has become an integral part of virtual learning at Irvine Valley College, and it continues today. This week I want to take a look at Otter and its benefits for educational and business environments through assistive technology.
About Apple@Work: Bradley Chambers managed the corporate IT network from 2009 to 2021. Through his experience deploying and managing firewalls, switches, MDM, enterprise-grade Wi-Fi, hundreds of Macs and hundreds of iPads, Bradley will talk about how Apple IT managers deploy Apple devices, build networks to support them, educate users , tell stories from the IT management trenches and ways Apple can improve its products for IT departments.
What is Otter?
Otter is a service for creating automatic meeting notes with audio recordings, text transcription, and resume highlighting. Otter connects to Zoom, Google Hangouts and more and turns your meetings, conversations or thoughts into smart notes that you can easily find and share with others. You can even take photos (such as a whiteboard, a speaker, or a presentation slide at an event) while recording, and they will be inserted according to your transcripts. Services like Zoom already offer a transcription service, but Otter is taking it to the next level with accuracy and functionality. Many executives use the mobile app to dictate thoughts, emails, or even blog posts while driving.
Irvine Valley College
Irvine Valley College is a public college within the California Community Colleges with over 14,500 students. As the lockdowns began, Irvine Valley College began eyeing Otter. After signing up for an Otter trial account, Tim Van Norman uploaded over 200 videos and was able to access fully completed transcripts within hours. He felt that Otter was not only very fast, but also responsive when correcting bugs. When the team first started working with Otter, they originally wanted to create subtitles for online lectures, and Otter made that a reality. With deep integration with Zoom, Otter is automatically enabled when the teacher starts a lecture, and then transcripts and subtitles are automatically generated. For some, signatures are a bonus. For students who rely on accessible technology, Otter has been and remains a lifeline.
“We have a lot of different people here, including people with disabilities and people who use different technologies for different reasons,” describes Tim Van Norman, a technology teacher at the college.
When I tried Otter, I was blown away by the quality of the transcription. I used to use services that create transcriptions and what Otter can create is on another level. It works great with Zoom, but I was also impressed with the ability to upload audio files to the service and get really accurate transcriptions.
Robust transcriptions are great, but Otter offers several tools for organizing and collaborating within its interface. Meeting gems can be created directly from your meetings by highlighting snippets in notes. Otters makes it easy to capture the actions, decisions, and key moments of your meeting; you can use the Meeting Gems panel to assign action items, add comments, or ask questions, saving you the hassle of sending follow-up emails or Slack messages. After the meeting, Otter’s own artificial intelligence will automatically generate a summary of the meeting so that you and your colleagues can easily access a summary of what was discussed in the meeting. In my experience, it was incredibly accurate.
General Thoughts on the Otter
I first checked out Otter because I was interested in the accessibility aspect of the service. For students and staff who rely on text-based content, this is a significant improvement over other services, and the service gets better the more you teach it. As I delved deeper into the service, I was also very impressed with the collaboration tools. It works well on both macOS and iOS and I highly recommend it going forward. It can be an incredible addition to the workflows of students, teachers, or busy executives.
similar
The post Otter has become a must-have tool for accessibility in education appeared first on Gamingsym.