VOL. III, NO. 7

February 14, 1962

Device Helps Shorthand Students

New ways of training secretaries are being pioneered at Maine West by means of an "electronic stenographic laboratory."

Operated by four different tape decks, the apparatus can dictate to 32 desks. For the beginning student, there is an easy dictation exercise. More difficult and faster dictations are relayed to the advanced student. Costing approximately $3,000, the laboratory was custom made by a Chicago electrical company.

It is hoped that the use of these machines will reduce the shorthand curriculum from two years to one.

Here at Maine West, 200 students are involved in a test to see if this new method of teaching is superior to the former.

The group is split in half, 100 students using the old method and 100 using the new.

"By checking achievement in words per minute, we expect to find the laboratory group has progressed much faster," said Mr. 0. W. Brown, chairman of the business education department. "If it works, it will be a real step forward for business education."