Product Review for LiveScribe's Pulse SmartPen

Over the past month I've been given the opportunity to review a product from Live Scribe called the Pulse SmartPen. I found it to be an intuitive tool with easy functionality and potential for growth.

First off, the device. I was given the 2 GB pen, a 100 page paper notebook (with special pages), a pen case, USB cradle/charger, and ear bud headphones. This setup would currently retail for $199.00 and has the ability to record up to 200 hours of audio (a 1GB model is available for $149.00). This is all you need to get started and installation and setup was simple.

What this device allows you to do seems too simple to get excited about, but the simplicity of the technology is the key to it's adaptability and success. This pen lets you record your writings and audio from the time you were writing, into this pen. You might be thinking, “how is this different from a regular voice recorder?” Well, let me explain. Let's say you are taking lecture notes and recording your teacher while writing with a regular notebook and digital recorder. When you go to review your written notes, you have the hassle of rewinding and fast-forwarding your recording to find the place the teacher was speaking about the information you wrote down. But this is where the Pulse SmartPen is different. Tap the pen on the words that you were writing and it will jump directly to the same time in the audio and play it back for you. That's what makes the SmartPen smart. Sure you can use the same rewind, fast-forward feature with SmartPen, but it also lets you jump to the exact point that you wrote something and plays back the audio. You can even leave bookmarks in your notes to jump back to important points later.

But that's not all the SmartPen is good at. You can record your “sessions” of note taking and download them to your computer. It creates a movie file that plays your audio back and shows, in real-time, your writings being drawn on the screen. You can even post that file on the web as part of livescribe's web page for others to view by just visiting the provided URL. Your viewers can even point the mouse at words and have the audio skip to that point on the movie file, just like you can on the SmartPen notebook.

Like I said, it's the simplicity of the SmartPen that makes it a versatile, powerful tool for learning and teaching. I believe the SmartPen could be used by teachers in many ways to reach their students. For example, a math teacher could use the pen to recorder his/her thought process while solving a multi-step math problem, and post it online for students to review and reference at any time. An English teacher could do the same to show an editing process for composition. An art teacher could use the same technology to explain his/her technique for drawing, just like a music teacher could use it to explain music notation. The possibilities for teachers are vast.

For student use, besides the obvious note taking during a lecture, there are some other possibilities that intrigue me. The SmartPen could be used in student work as a tool for reflecting. Why not have a student talk about their thought process while writing or drawing. What an insight that could give a teacher. Also, listening to a lecture and seeing what the student writes down is a great way to teach the techniques for effective note taking. The possibilities for students with special needs are endless, but it's clear that the SmartPen is a tool that can fundamentally change note taking and how it is taught.

There are other features of the SmartPen not mentioned here, a calculator, a simple piano feature, even a basic language translator, but the best way to understand the power of this tool is to try it yourself. Soon LiveScribe will be offering the ability to print your own paper for free and the ability to run the software natively in a Mac OS X environment. There are many upcoming developments for the SmartPen, most of which will be offered as free upgrades. I would encourage any school to purchase a SmartPen, it is clear the educational benefits may only be limited by your imagination.

Jeff

Episode 33 Ready on Day One

Show notes:
Discussion: @ 5:36
Dan and Jeff discuss first day school readiness.

Tech Talk: @ 48:42
Jeff reviews some web tools that will help students and parents better manage their schoolwork.
http://www.studyrails.com/view/render_page
http://www.gradefix.com/
http://www.notely.net/
http://forlater.net/
http://www.pocketmod.com/


Book Talk: @ 56:43
Dan reviews “I Carry it Everywhere” by The Telling Room Project.
http://www.tellingroom.org

Media Integration: @ 1:01:21
Jeff reviews the series “Fight Science” from National Geographic Channel
Fight Science on YouTube.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/fight-science

Did ya see?/Listener Feedback @ 1:06:58
http://knox.villagesoup.com/Education/story.cfm?storyID=124837
http://tinyurl.com/5wqckf

Music in this week's episode comes from Penmachine Podcast. “Meltdown Man” intro music by Derek K. Miller. Bumper music, “Particle Spin 30” Composed by:Roy Dank, BMI (33%), Michael Genato, ASCAP (34%), James Ronaghan, BMI (33%) also from freeplaymusic.com

Listener feedback is encouraged. Contact us at wickeddecentlearning@gmail.com or leave us comments at http://wickeddecentlearning.blogspot.com or on Twitter, name Wicked Decent, or on Skype- Wicked Decent Learning.
This episode was recorded August 25, 2008.

Episode 32 Loading In

Episode 32- Loading In
Show Notes:
Discussion: @8:18
Jeff and Dan Discuss how they’ll setup their classrooms for the fall.

Tech Talk: @ 56:15
Jeff gives some site resources for making your websites more accessible to all users and learners.
http://section508.gov/
http://www.cynthiasays.com
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6720 Wave Firefox addon.
http://www.twentyfortech.com/

Book Talk: @ 1:02:40
Dan discusses Stephen King’s On Writing

Media Integration: @ 1:07:54
Dan talks about the film Once and the music from it.

Did ya See?/Listener Feedback @ 1:14:14
Maine Vs. New Hampshire School Unit comparison
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5323633.html

Music in this week's episode freeplaymusic.com

Listener feedback is encouraged. Contact us at wickeddecentlearning@gmail.com or leave us comments at http://wickeddecentlearning.blogspot.com or on Twitter, name Wicked Decent, or on Skype- Wicked Decent Learning.
This episode was recorded August 17, 2008.

Episode 31 Take Note!

Episode- 31 Take Note!
Show notes:
Discussion: @ 6:05
Dan and Jeff discuss note taking in the classroom, and why it’s more complex than it sounds.

Tech Talk: @ 29:59
Jeff and Dan Review the Pulse Smart Pen from Livescribe.
http://livescribe.com/

Book Talk: @ 48:20
Dan reviews Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Media Integration: @ 54:56
Dan reviews the TV show Freaks and Geeks

Did ya see?/Listener Feedback @ 1:03:42

Music in this week's episode comes from Penmachine Podcast. “Meltdown Man” intro music by Derek K. Miller. Bumper music, “Particle Spin 30” Composed by:Roy Dank, BMI (33%), Michael Genato, ASCAP (34%), James Ronaghan, BMI (33%) also from freeplaymusic.com

Listener feedback is encouraged. Contact us at wickeddecentlearning@gmail.com or leave us comments at http://wickeddecentlearning.blogspot.com or on Twitter, name Wicked Decent, or on Skype- Wicked Decent Learning.
This episode was recorded August 12, 2008.

Episode 30 Strugglin' with Strugglin

Episode- 30 Struggin’ with Strugglin’
Show notes:
Discussion: Unfortunately, due to some technical problems, the discussion segment didn’t save properly. We discussed how to identify and help struggling learners. We hope to recreate this segment in the future and distribute it. Here is the link to the recreated conversation Episode 44 "Still Strugglin"

Tech Talk: @ 6:32
Jeff reviews some sites to help you catch up with some conferences you didn’t attend.

BLC08-http://tinyurl.com/2rv9lv
Bob Sprankle’s “Bit by Bit Podcasts from BLC ’08- http://tinyurl.com/6pmr7f


NECC- http://tinyurl.com/29qtot





Technorati- http://www.technorati.com

MLTI Conference at Castine Links to look at:

• Learning in Maine Blogs about it- http://tinyurl.com/55j2of
• Mark Spahr’s Blogs about it (live blogs too)- http://tinyurl.com/6757cy
• Sarah Sutter’s Blog about it-http://tinyurl.com/5dfdea

Tag Generator- http://landmark-project.com/blogtags.php

Book Talk: @ 13:40
Dan reviews “The Science of Superheroes” by Lois Gresh and Robert Wienberg





Media Integration: @ 20:50
Jeff and Dan discuss uses of Batman in the classroom.
http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=322654
http://www.history.com/shows.do?episodeId=322796&action=detail

Did ya see?/Listener Feedback @ 36:17

Music in this week's episode comes from Penmachine Podcast. “Meltdown Man” intro music by Derek K. Miller. Bumper music, “Particle Spin 30” Composed by:Roy Dank, BMI (33%), Michael Genato, ASCAP (34%), James Ronaghan, BMI (33%) also from freeplaymusic.com

Listener feedback is encouraged. Contact us at wickeddecentlearning@gmail.com or leave us comments at http://wickeddecentlearning.blogspot.com or on Twitter, name Wicked Decent, or on Skype- Wicked Decent Learning.
This episode was recorded August 4, 2008.