Using the Livescribe Smartpen with Students

In the past couple of weeks I have worked with a number of students with learning disabilities who all have difficulty taking notes and I have introduced them to the Livescribe Smartpens. It was truly amazing to watch them use this device and the potential it has to open up all kinds of opportunities for them. For students with dyspgraphia, learning disabilities, auditory processing difficulties the Livescribe Smartpen is a godsend. Once I demonstrate the technique of just writing keywords on the dotted paper the student get the "aha" moment when I showed them the Paper Replay" feature. For students who have difficulty listening and recording notes in real time this is truly a powerful tool and one I would put on my Back to School list of gadgets.

With the Livescribe Smartpen students can now concentrate on what the teacher is saying and don't have to feel the urge to write down and capture every single word. This is truly a relieve for students who for years are sitting in class feeling very anxious about taking notes. The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen can also be married with the Cornell or Landmark note taking strategies which can then be saved and archived on the computer. Creating templates on the dotted paper is easy to do and will provide the students with another level of support and structure that they may need. For students who will be using the Livescribe smartpens in large lecture or conference halls, I would recommend that they use the 3D Recording Premium headset for recording. While the Pulse SmartPen came with the 3D recording headset you will need to purchase this as an accessory for the Echo Smartpen. Having used the Echo Smartpen in a large lecture room with the 3D Recording Headset I have to tell you that it makes a big difference and the sound quality is fantastic.

So with school just around the corner, you should consider sending your child back to the classroom with a Livescribe Smartpen- it will make a world of difference. From a practical standpoint, you should always ask permission before recording the lecture and let your teacher know how you intend to use the recording. With that in mind have a great school year and record notes with confidence with the Livescribe Smartpen!

Livescribe Launches the Echo Smartpen

At the ISTE 2010 Conference I had a chance to sit down with Jim Marggraff, CEO of Livescribe and talk about the the status of the Smartpen Ecosystem. Jim was very excited to meet with me and to share Livescribe's newest offering the Echo Smartpen which will be released today. The Echo Smartpen will over time add some exciting new features and expand on the number of applications that can run on the digital pen. Jim was very excited to see how educators have embraced the Livescribe products and noted the shear number of pencasts that are now available. With the move to portable computing, Jim was very excited to share with me the new design of the Echo Smartpen and to talk to me about how pencasts can be shared going forward. There have been some updates to the Livescribe Desktop software that will make it easy to customize notebooks and to export audio and pen strokes. Likewise, we should see the availability to view pencasts on the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch making this a compelling learning tool. With the new Echo Smartpen design it will be even easier to download our digital ink and charge, now that it uses a mini USB connector on the top of the pen. I was rather impressed with all of the new features and the move to integrate the features to make the Livescribe solution even more powerful as a computing platform. Watch the Livescribe website for new announcements and updates. Look for a complete review of the Echo Smartpen within the next couple of weeks on my blog.