iCochise - Jott Critique
Home Page: http://www.jott.com/
Description (copied from their site): Jott makes sure you stay on top of everything. With a simple phone call, you can capture notes, set reminders and calendar appointments, stay in touch with friends and family, and interact with your favorite web sites and services...all with your voice!
Simply call Jott and tell us where you want your message to go. We capture your voice, turn it into text, and send it to the destination you chose.
Cost: Jott Basic is free, but ad supported. Jott is $3.95/month or $39.50/year. Jott Pro is $12.95/month or $129.50/year. See my critique for the differences between these plans.
Grade: A
Compare With: None
Critique: Jott is a service that, in essence, permits people to call a phone number and leave a reminder for themselves. The reminder is converted from voice to text and is, optionally, emailed back to the person at a day and time specified during the phone call. This is a great way for instructors to make notes to themselves so they can capture those great ideas that come at times when they are not near a computer. As an example, I once finished a lecture and was walking to my office after class when I suddenly remembered something that I had meant to cover but did not. I hauled out my cell phone and called Jott (it is on my speed dial). I sent myself a reminder about the material I had not covered and had that emailed to me the next day. When I received the email message I made a note to myself (in large letters) in my notebook for that class so I would remember to cover that material the next week.
Jott Basic (the free version) gives instructors the ability to create an unlimited number of reminders and email those reminders to themselves. Jott (for about $40/year) includes Jott for Outlook (so instructors can create an Outlook appointment via phone call) and "Hands-free Email" (so instructors can send an email reminder to everyone in a class rather than just themselves). Jott Pro (for about $130/year) includes all of the above, but increases the maximum length of the message and has a Blackberry link (it is intended for "Road Warriors").
The Jott voice-to-text capability is very good and it only occasionally misses a word. For example, one of my Jots says, "Remember to send that a note out for the EDU288 B class about using web study." While this is quite understandable, I am not sure where the phrase "that a note" came from. I believe I said "that note." Of course, I probably hesitated and said "ahh" as I was speaking (like "that ahh note") and Jott faithfully transcribed what it heard. Of course, my students would have easily been able to understand that note even with the odd "a" stuck in the sentence.
For the most part, instructors will be quite happy with Jott Basic, but by spending $40/year they can upgrade to Jott and gain the capability of sending notes to entire classes, peers, or other individuals or groups, via the phone. This is an excellent service and will help instructors make notes to themselves while they are on a busy schedule.