Livescribe Smartpen: Applications in Education

Heading to ISTE? We’d love to see you there! 

Livescribe Educators: Are you attending ISTE 2010 in Denver next week? Would you like to learn more about bringing the Pulse smartpen to your school or district? Then please join us for our Breakfast Event on Tuesday June 29th 7-8:30am at the Curtis Hotel (directly across from ISTE convention center).

For information on how to register, please email us directly at lparker@livescribe.com.

PBWorks is an extremely popular and powerful wiki (and more!) tool for educators, businesses, and individuals.  If you’re not familiar with wikis I suggest you view this YouTube video: Wikis in Plain English.

How to embed Livescribe pencasts in PBWorks wiki pages

Method 1: How to embed a pencast with its normal (small) dimensions.  Example

1. Find the pencast you want on Livescribe.
2. Click the "Embed this file" button.
3. Select and copy the embed code to your clipboard.  Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-C on Windows or Command-C on a Mac.
4. In PBWorks – Click the PBWorks Insert Plugin – PBWorks Magic – HTML/JavaScript tool.
   • Paste the resulting embed code into the HTML/JavaScript plugin, click Preview, and press OK.
5. Voila! When you click Save in PBWorks you should now see the pencast and right above it have a link to the pencast on Livescribe’s site.

Method 2:  How to embed a pencast with small, medium, or large dimensions.   Example

1. Find the pencast you want on LiveScribe.
2. Click the "Get a link to this file" button.
3. Select and copy the link to your clipboard.  Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-C on Windows or Command-C on a Mac.
4. Refer to the post "How to Embed Larger Pencasts" and use James Socol’s Pencast Embed tool to generate the needed embed code.
5. In PBWorks – Click the PBWorks Insert Plugin – PBWorks Magic – HTML/JavaScript tool.
6. Voila! When you click Save in PBWorks you should now see the pencast and right above it have a link to the pencast on Livescribe’s site.

Wikispaces is a very popular and powerful wiki for K-12 educators, higher ed, businesses, and non-profits.  If you’re not familiar with wikis I suggest you view this YouTube video: Wikis in Plain English.

How to embed Livescribe pencasts in Wikispaces wiki pages

Method 1: How to embed a pencast with its normal (small) dimensions.  Example

1. Find the pencast you want on Livescribe.
2. Click the "Embed this file" button.
3. Select and copy the embed code to your clipboard.  Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-C on Windows or Command-C on a Mac.
4. Navigate to the desired Wikispaces page.
5. Click Edit this Page, click the Widget button, and then click the Other HTML button.
6. Paste the embed code on the clipboard into the HTML box and then click Preview (and then Close Preview) and/or Save.  
7. Optional: Click on the widget and change its alignment.
8. Click Save. 
9. You should now see the pencast and right above it also see a clickable link to the pencast on Livescribe’s site.

Method 2:  How to embed a pencast with small, medium, or large dimensions.   Example

1. Find the pencast you want on Livescribe.
2. Click the "Get a link to this file" button.
3. Select and copy the link to your clipboard.  Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-C on Windows or Command-C on a Mac.
4. Refer to the post "How to Embed Larger Pencasts" and use James Socol’s Pencast Embed tool to generate the needed embed code.
5. Navigate to the desired Wikispaces page.
6. Click Edit this Page, click the Widget button, and then click the Other HTML button.
7. Paste the embed code on the clipboard into the HTML box, then click Preview (and then Close Preview) and/or click the Save button.  
8. Optional: Click on the widget and change its alignment.
9. Click Save. 
10. You should now see the pencast and right above it also see a clickable link to the pencast on Livescribe’s site.

Please leave a comment if this helps you or if you have any suggestions about how to improve on these directions.  Thanks!  — Tim F

We are excited to announce that Livescribe has won both a Golden Lamp and a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP). This is the first time that one company has won AEP’s two top awards in technology. One of the largest and longest-running award programs for educational products, the AEP Awards have honored exceptional resources for teaching and learning for more than four decades.

According to AEP, the Golden Lamp is the gold standard for educational products. Only four Golden Lamps are awarded each year – one for Curriculum, one for Periodicals, one for Professional Development, and one for Technology & New Media. The 2010 Golden Lamp was presented to Livescribe in the Technology & New Media category.

The Distinguished Achievement Awards (DAAs) recognize the year’s top educational products in the same four categories (Curriculum, Periodicals, Professional Development, and Technology & New Media), but are judged only against products in their entry category, subcategory and grade level. Livescribe was recognized as the 2010 DAA winner in the Technology & New Media, Administrative Tools category.

Livescribe was selected as a winner by a two-tiered judging process made up of highly qualified industry experts. Winners were announced at an awards banquet on Tuesday during AEP’s Annual Content in Context Conference (CIC) at the Capital Hilton in Washington D.C.

Check out the Golden Lamp Award Announcement on YouTube.

Here are some best practices for using Livescribe smartpens in classrooms with interactive whiteboards:

1. Student note taking with audio recording and work product creation (From Holly De Leon, Livescribe: VP Sales, K-12)

   The basic way we describe integration with interactive whiteboards is that students still have to process the information, no matter if they are receiving instruction from a teacher or through a lesson presented on a whiteboard – the student has to take it in visually and auditorally, integrate the information, and try to get something written to help the retention process.  They can do that with a smartpen and can capture notes and audio from their teacher’s instruction, videos projected onto whiteboard, and internet content being shown on the whiteboard.  

   Then when the child is asked to produce a work product (written essay, math problem, art creation) they can again use a smartpen and notebook to create their work product.  Then their teacher can dock the smartpen and then share & project a pencast of work on whiteboard as an example of the lesson just presented.  The student could give a verbal explanation of a battle in the Civil War that was just explored using whiteboard tools; they could show a different way of charting a series of numbers in a math equation.  The point is the interactive whiteboard is a great way to provide instruction and interest, but the actual processing of information and integrating it for retention can be greatly enhanced with the smartpen.

2. Note taking with audio recording shared as a pencast (From Tim Fahlberg, Livescribe – Wisconsin)

   Ask a student who already takes excellent notes to record even better notes with audio using a smartpen.  Make sure they write a heading with the class name, lesson name, date, and start time at the top of the page (or these can also be added after class).

   After class the teacher (or a student/parent aide) docks the smartpen, quickly creates a pencast from the notes, and then shares it using a wiki, blog, or website.  Pencasts can also be shared via email.  

   This way students and their parents or tutors can access notes quickly and get much more out of them since they can listen to the teacher’s instruction or classroom discussions while watching the ink written by the note taker appear like magic.  And then if students who were absent also had their own smartpens they could use these to do and share some of their homework digitally back with their teacher.

   Imagine being a student who is absent from school (or their parent) and being able to watch & listen to the notes on the same day that class(es) were missed!?

3. Recording audio and sharing as a podcast

   Ink notes with audio can be recorded (above) or audio only can be recorded (using the method shared in this blog post/video: How to Quickly Record …).  

   Audio only can then be shared by locating the audio file in the Livescribe Desktop (using the Audio tab) and then clicking the Upload button.

   Audio can be exported in various formats and shared through iTunes or other sites.  

    

4. Note taking with audio using handouts

   This idea is similar to adding notes and audio to PowerPoint slides printed on Livescribe dot paper (see How to Add Ink and Audio to PowerPoint Notes)..  Basically the idea is that if a teacher has a lesson already prepared using their IWB software then the teacher (or student) could print out the slides/pages from it onto Livescribe dot paper and then add their notes and record audio along with it.  And then students, parents, or a tutor could later touch their smartpen to their ink and be able to replay everything that was recorded while the writing originally took place. 

   Students who really struggle with taking legible notes (students with dysgraphia, etc) can either write whatever notes they can or simple make marks (dots, asterisks, exclamation points) when they here something really critical that they’d like to easily find and listen to later again.