The activity - section two: select your recording equipment
Step 2 of the task is to decide on what recording equipment to use. You could start by looking at your mobile phone or Mp3 player. If either of these has a microphone, you might be able to use it to record your conversation.
You will be working in a group of three or four students, so ask the other people in your group if they own any recording equipment. You only need one device per group, if you don't mind sharing the recording later. Or, if you prefer, each member of the group could use their own recording device, meaning that you don't need to share the resulting sound file.
If you don't own any recording equipment, you can probably borrow a recording device from your School, Faculty, Department or Media Services office. Ask your Module Tutor for advice.
Taking notes of the conversation won't work; you need to capture more detail than is possible to write down while you are talking. Also, you need a recording of your conversation in case you disagree with your fellow group members about what was said!
It doesn't what equipment you use to record your conversation, as long as you can easily play it back later. If you want to edit your sound file, however, you will need to record in a digital format. If you want to share your sound file with other students in your group, then recording in Mp3 format is probably best.
You can easily edit your sound files (increase or decrease the volume, split your file into sections or copy short sections into a new file etc.) using a sound recording and editing programme called Audacity. Audacity is free to download if you want to install it on your own computer. Click here for downloading instructions and more information.
