Gadgets aren’t just for Dungeons and Dragons lovers who live in their parents basement anymore! Missionaries have long been using technology to their advantage, and seeing how there are so many options in today’s world I thought I’d give you a brief guide to some of the more useful ones here.
The Importance of Recording:
This big ol’ world is filled with loads of pre-recorded information that we browse and consume based on our mood (television, radio, internet, etc). Unfortunately, all the world’s information is not yet recorded. Language and culture data from unwritten languages must be recorded for the first time. This puts missionaries in a very unique position: we become journalists, linguists, and even historians.
Our task is to capture life as it happens, and categorize and sort the information into a "culture file." Traditionally, this was all done by hand and kept in shoeboxes, filing cabinets, or (in my dad’s case) scattered all over the office. Most of the information was in written form which, needless to say, was painstaking to record and punishing to read. With a few notable exceptions, the quality of these culture files were abominable.
Gadgets can help!
Sharon and I will need to record sound, video, pictures, and written information about events that happen in the natural course of the everyday life of a people group. This is nothing new. HOW we do it, however, may be different.
DSLR Camera
As a new generation of missionaries tries to up the game, we’ve turned increasingly to an old technology for the answer: good pictures. This delivers better results for later study and helps YOU stay connected with us.
Digital Voice Recorder
Capturing crisp, clear voices for later analysis and possibly transcription is essential. People tend to mumble when speaking their own language anyway. You don’t want poor sound quality further complicating things.
Video Camera
Old video cameras were big and clunky. They were cost-prohibitive and distracting, so most missionaries avoided them. Those excuses are gone and video is a staple of most missionary’s gadget toolbox.
Cell Phones
Growing up, we had two daily "checks" on a ham radio station, our only link with the world. These days many missionaries rely on cell phones for the internet and safety, not to mention taking video and pictures!
Well, that’s a small list. A few other useful recording devices could include shotgun microphones for noisy environments, portable netbooks for computing on the go, webcams for clearer communication, and wireless lapel microphones… a step up! In our next installment we take a look at computing devices: What it takes to store, process, sort, search, and organize the data.
Ric and Sharon Bruce 