Livebinders are phenomenal tools for organizing, collaborating and sharing resources online.

I just created this Livescribe Educational Applications Livebinder that shares resources for educational uses for Livescribe smartpens.

Wouldn’t you love it if there could be an easy way to send short positive* voice notes with maybe a little writing to parents?

Well it can be using the Livescribe Email Connector (with Connect Premium**)

In Part 1 below I show how to use a Livescribe Sticky Note, Echo smartpen, and a Launch Line Shortcut*** to record & send such a voice note.

Part 1: Create & send – How to use Livescribe Connect to easily send positive voice

Read more… Use Livescribe Connect to easily send positive voice notes

Today’s post and videos were inspired by Dr. Brian Friedlander’s post “Livescribe Releases Sound Stickers App” in his “Assistive Technology” blog.

Livescribe Sound Stickers are small stickers for recording and playing back audio notes.

You can use them to add recorded audio to

• Make interactive flash cards, study guides, and talking books
• Record audio instructions or fluency assessments
• Create annotated art projects and oral reports
• Create talking tests or worksheets without having to copy them onto dot paper

More information is below the YouTube videos

5 – Talking Word Wall (with translatable closed captions

Read more… Livescribe Sound Stickers – Applications

By Kayla

This year in my Advanced Placement Literature class I was introduced to some of the newest forms of technology, such as Smart Boards, IPADs and the Livescribe Pen.  The one I enjoyed the most was the Livescribe pen.  Now I am not the type of person that likes technology- in fact sometimes I would rather boycott it all together, but I found the Livescribe pen extremely helpful and interesting.
Read more… My Livescribe Pen Experience [Graduating H.S. Senior]

By Claudia Felske, 2011 Wisconsin High School Teacher of the Year

‘Twas the end-o-the-year in AP English. Our high-stakes, studied-for-all-year test was finally behind us, and we were looking for fun, academic fun that is: a meaningful, yet amusing project for my exhausted yet brilliant Advanced Placement English Students (APES).

Enter, Livescribe pens.
Read more… Using Livescribe Pens for AP English Legacy Projects: Students Teaching Students

Post updated on 4-18-2011 with updated version of document.  Thanks to Barb Forsberg, Pulaski School District, Pulaski, WI

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Kim Evans, M. E.d., has compiled and shared a 5 page list of 60+ Educational Uses for Livescribe Smartpens.

Categories include: Student Use, Teacher Use, Parental Use, Administrative Use, and ESOL/ELL Use.

Pdf version: Educational Uses for Livescribe Smartpens Online version: Google shared doc

Have another use?  Please share it with us!

Charting the Cs

This past Monday and Tuesday I had the great privilege of co-presenting on the smartpen with Greg Sumner, an extraordinary OT from Northfield Public Schools, at the 2011 Charting the Cs Cross Categorical Conference in Alexandria, MN. This reminds me – I’m going to ask Greg if he’d be willing to post about his work as an OT with the smartpen because he’s got so many great ideas and stories to share (plus great handouts too).  He’s amazing!

Research on smartpens and pencasts!

While at Charting the Cs I was asked to share the research on the benefits of smartpens and pencasts in education.  It was such a great question that I thought I’d spend time compiling it and add it to new wiki page on a new Livescribe wiki I just started.

Research page on new wiki: http://k12livescribe.wikispaces.com/Research

New wiki:  Wikispaces Livescribe Education Wiki

From the wiki page:

Research

Research Support

• “Livescribe in K-12 Education: Research Support”: 28 page pdf or Blog post with outline

Access Rates

• A comparison of Information Access Rates Between the Apple iPod and the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen - 1 page pdf

Assistive Technology

• Poster: Livescribe Pulse SmartPen: Reflections of College Students with Learning Disabilities After Use of this Assistive Technology

Blind/visually impaired

• Audio-Tactile applications

  • “Smartpen” earns Peabody researcher NSF grant“
  • Audio-tactile applications – Videos: Scientific calculator Periodic Table- From TouchGraphics

• Use with Sewell Raised Line Drawing Kit

  • Smartpen aids blind engineering students
  • Also see pages 15-17 in Research Support (above).

Chemistry Pencasts

Chemistry Pencasts + A Comparison of Pencasts With Other Forms of Lecture Capture

• Blog post by Dr. Daniel Stasko
• Paper by Dr. Stasko: “Digital notes and lecture capture: pencasts as electronic copies of live STEM lectures and student access to digital lectures“
• Abstract: Shifting physical science classes into an online environment poses a number of special challenges due to the presentation of STEM content. In an attempt to improve student access and immersion in challenging science topics, lecture capture and sharing was utilized through the use of pencasts. Students in two separate chemistry courses were given access to digitally captured, in-class lecture session (incorporating both audio and text). Student utilization of these recorded class session was monitored using readily available tools. How and when students interacted with the digital capture of the classes was examined in an attempt to better understand student utilization of supplemental materials and to examine the use of pencasts as a medium for physical science course delivery.

Differentiating with Pencasts

• TechBits – Differentiating with Pencasts (page 38/39)

Mathematics

Online Math Learning Resource and Support Center

• The Development of an Online Math Learning Resource and Support Center for ODL Learners (page

Notetaking

• Notetaking research

  • Adapted from Livescribe in K-12 Research (above): 7 page pdf
    

• Cognitive effort during Note Taking

  Piolat, Olive & Kellogg - pdf – 12 page article + 7 pages of references

• Notetaking at RIT

  • Livescribe //Smartpen// Pilot Program- Winter Quarter 2008-09
  • Results: Overall, participants were happy with the Livescribe Smartpen. 10 of the 11 participants elected to continue using the pen in place of a note-taker in at least once course each quarter while they remain at RIT. The one student who did not wish to continue using the pen without a back-up note-taker stated that he wanted to use both the pen and a note-taker and we were offering one or the other, so he would probably buy his own pen and continue with using both. The students provided the following feedback [See article].

Pharmaceutical calculations course

• Article: “A brief report on the use of paper-based computing to supplement a pharmaceutical calculations course“
• Objective: To describe changes in the delivery of the pharmaceutical calculations course associated with incorporation of synchronized audio/visual recordings (pencasts) using the Livescribe Pulse™ pen.
• Conclusion: Nearly half (46%) of students surveyed reported using pencasts, and 92.6% of students who reported using pencasts believed that pencasts enhanced learning. Students also responded that pencasts may be beneficial for other pharmacy courses, including pharmaceutics, medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, chemistry, physical chemistry, and pharmacology

This is Tim Fahlberg, K-12 representative for Livescribe for Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Today is April 14th, 2011 and I am very happy to start adding again to this blog which is now again my personal/professional Livescribe blog.

Just so you know – Livescribe’s Official Educational blog is here: www.livescribek12.com.

Please visit Livescribe’s official Education blog at www.livescribek12.com

Or click on the image below to go there.

This updated version of a previous post includes new videos for both Windows and Mac.

Windows and Mac users:
Part 1 of 2: Creating pencast using Livescribe Echo smartpen and Flip Notepad
If YouTube is blocked then try this link: http://screencast.com/t/0Y2Hof4uyPeB (opens in new window/tab)

Part 2 of 2: For Windows users: Sharing Pencast Online & Viewing it
Video also shows how to hide the previewing of ink
If YouTube is blocked then try this link: http://screencast.com/t/jG4qAxhY08 (opens in new window/tab)

Step by Step Instructions (for Windows)

1. Turn on smartpen
2. Write problem with smartpen on dot paper
3. Tap Record button on bottom of page
4. Solve problem with writing and voice explanation
5. Tap Stop button
6. Dock smartpen to sync with Livescribe Desktop
7. Find page with pencast (look for black – static ink and green – dynamic ink)
8. In Pages View, click a page’s active ink to activate a session. This action will open the Session tab and will start the session playback in the Central Viewing Pane.
9. Click the Share button, then Session …, then with Online Community (Upload) …
10. Name your pencast, click Share button.
11. You should receive a notice that your pencast has uploaded successfully
12. Click Livescribe Online button
13. Click the “Make this file public” link on the left
14. Click “Get a link to this file” or “Embed this file”
15. Copy link or embed code to clipboard (you’ll have to select it and then press Ctrl-C on keyboard for Windows)
16. Paste link into blog, wiki, web page, or email

Part 2 of 2: For Mac users: Sharing Pencast Online

Link to video on Screencast.com: http://www.screencast.com/t/G9d4PXgr (opens in new window/tab)