I'm leaving for Tanzania in a week to begin the adventure of a rural community household survey for my dissertation research. As I rapidly finish up questionnaires, training manuals, IRB letters, rabies vaccinations and taking my last written prelim (two days before departure), I'm also attempting to procure a set computer assisted interviewing devices.
I previously blogged about the advantage of using personal digital assistants (PDAs- like old smart phones) or computers in data collection. The World Bank also has some great resources on software programs to use. We've decided on using the Pendragon Forms version 5.1, also recommended here. So now the the begging part: I need advice (quickly!) on which hardware to accompany this software.
As you can tell, these devices look like dorky outdated un-smart phones. Here are my constraints:
Trimle's Juno was a recommendation and seems ideal but its upwards of $600. And this was compared to SoMo 650, which apparently has a mediocre GPS. Pendragon costumer service recommended the Aceeca PDA32, which is semi-rugged, however, it doesn't have a GPS.
Anyway... to the point. The IT world of information is limited on this subject as these are all pretty outdated devices, but does anyone have any advice?
I previously blogged about the advantage of using personal digital assistants (PDAs- like old smart phones) or computers in data collection. The World Bank also has some great resources on software programs to use. We've decided on using the Pendragon Forms version 5.1, also recommended here. So now the the begging part: I need advice (quickly!) on which hardware to accompany this software.
As you can tell, these devices look like dorky outdated un-smart phones. Here are my constraints:
- Due to using the slightly older version of Pendragon (new version requires wireless, exceedingly unlikely in this case), the hardware has to run these older operating systems: Windows Mobile 6.1-6.5 or Palm OS 5.2.
- Rechargeable battery with a long life (electricity may also be sketchy)
- Has a good GPS (for household identification)
- Under $250
Trimle's Juno was a recommendation and seems ideal but its upwards of $600. And this was compared to SoMo 650, which apparently has a mediocre GPS. Pendragon costumer service recommended the Aceeca PDA32, which is semi-rugged, however, it doesn't have a GPS.
Anyway... to the point. The IT world of information is limited on this subject as these are all pretty outdated devices, but does anyone have any advice?
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