I had the privilege of giving a workshop to several of my colleagues a few weeks ago on how to use the Livescribe Pulse smartpen to write and upload math examples for students to view outside of class.   Teri Graham, one of the adjunct instructors who attended the workshop, contacted me recently to help her do a pencast for the micro-teach portion of her interview (she is applying for a full-time position).

Teri had the most amazing idea; a way to use the pen that I had never thought of!  She was going to use the Livescribe pen to replace writing on an overhead during her lesson.  

She sat down with me and went through her teaching ideas for the 20 minute micro-teach.  As Teri spoke, the light went on for me.   Wow! To be able to write out definitions and examples ahead of time, but have them show up “live” (animated) during the lesson, as if she were writing it herself!    Her plan was to create one pencast over several pages, where her introductions, definitions, and graphs would already be “recorded” but would appear only when she was ready for them to (by hitting play, then pause again).   She would turn the sound on the computer off, so that she could speak through the lesson in person. 

This would free her up to read the definitions and explain the examples while they were being written magically on the board behind her!  She would save time by being able to talk through everything that was already written, without having to stop and write it all out.   I was very impressed with all of her ideas!  It was hard to believe she had only seen the Livescribe Pulse smartpen once, during her workshop with me. I can’t wait to see what ideas she comes up with after actually using the pen for a while.    


She only needed my input to see if her teaching concept would work with the pen.  We did a few sample lessons to make sure it would work as she pictured, and then Teri went home and wrote out each page the way she wanted it to look.   Several days later we got back together so she could use the Livescribe smartpen to write out her finalized lesson, and then upload it to the computer.   She then had 3 days to practice her lesson before her micro-teach.

I spoke to her after the micro-teach and she thought it was a hit!  The interview team was very interested in her use of the Livescribe Pulse smartpen and they wanted to know more about the pen itself!

I am positive that Teri Graham showed her interview team that she not only embraces 21st century technology, but can envision new ways to use it in very effective ways to benefit her students.

YouTube video (with translatable closed captions) below (YouTube blocked? Try this link to the same video on Screencast.com)

How to Record and Share a Pencast

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 Upload Pages and Audio button on the Main Toolbar.
10. Name your pencast, click OK.
    You should receive a notice that your pencast has uploaded successfully
11. Click Livescribe Online button
12. Click the “Make this file public” link on the left
13. Click “Get a link to this file” or “Embed this file”
14. Copy link or embed code to clipboard
15. Paste link into blog, wiki, web page, or email

Downloadable/printable resources related to this:

1. Microsoft Word 2007 version of test (printable on Livescribe paper)
2. Microsoft Word 2003 version of test (printable on Livescribe paper)
3. Adobe pdf version of test (printable on Livescribe paper)
4. ExamView 6.2 version of test (requires ExamView 6.2 or higher – unzip this file)

Each pencast and pdf was created using a Livscribe Smartpen by a student or students with lots of tutoring experience and vetted by an amazing team led by Susan Smith, Director and Janie McNichols, Assistant Director, of the Homework Hotline provided by AskRose.org.  This award winning non-profit is funded by Lilly Endowment, Inc. and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Free math/science tutoring for K-12 students in Indiana!
If you’re lucky enough to live in Indiana and have children in grades 6-12 that need math/science tutoring then be sure to visit www.askrose.org and take advantage of the free homework hotline that Rose-Hulman offers.  In 2008 over 44,000 students took advantage of this and I’m sure the number will be much higher in 2009 which is drawing to a close as I write this.

If you’d like to learn how all this got started read more under the image below.

In early 2009 Janie McNichols stopped at CIM Technology Solutions’ booth at an educational technology conference in Indiana where she met JR Gayman (VP of CIM, someone who really understands cutting edge technology). JR asked her what she did and was interested in and Janie replied that she co-directed AskRose, Rose-Hulman’s Homework Hotline, and was looking for tools that might help with it (math in particular). JR shared with her about how the Livescribe Smartpen could be used to take notes with voice & to create and share pencasts/mathcasts online and encouraged her to contact me (I worked for JR and CIM at the time) because of my long work with mathcasts and knowledge of the Smartpen. So Janie and I met online – only once or perhaps twice and she caught onto everything I shared about it a hurry (pencasting/mathcasting with the Smartpen and/or using Jing/Camtasia Studio with graphics tablets to create/share mathcasts).

Part 1: The Talking Test

1. YouTube version of video (new window): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP8-ibqa5k0
2. Screencast.com version (new window) – http://www.screencast.com/t/NjdkNWVjZDM Download Screencast.com version (8 MB):  Livescribe-Enabled Talking Test

Part 2: Pencast Solutions to the talking test (Pencast) Image below links to blog post with actual pencast:|

Many thanks to The Math Maker for creating the original talking test screencast and to Jim Dornberg (Mathcasts – handouts and links page on his wiki) and James Socol who collaborated to create the Pencast Embed tool which allows creation of pencast embed code of 3 sizes (I used the Large size above here). See http://jamessocol.com/pencast/ Small pencasts can also be easily embedded using the embed code now available when viewing pencasts on the Livescribe Community.

More examples of Julie’s students’ work are here: Pencasts by 6th Graders and on her Mathcast Central: Mathcasts by the Math Masters blog.

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