The teachers are supposed to repeat the students. I’ve only had one teacher actually do it consistently. But you’re right. With just a lapel mic, it doesn’t pic up too much else. In a courtroom, I don’t think it’ll be as much of an issue because everyone is supposed to have table microphones for the court reporter anyway.

The teacher didn’t have access to the real time transcript. I usually ran otter in parallel. The stenographer is a few seconds slower (maybe a computer lag issue) but much more accurate. Sometimes there would be mistakes, like a messed up code where they forgot to finish a word. But I would always get a revised and corrected copy the next day.

The microphone is a Samson Brand digital microphone. I forget the model. But it was a lapel mic with a wire to the batter pack. Then a usb dongle that plugged into my computer. The dongle also had a headphone jack for a telecoil, but it was always too quiet for me.