Livescribe - Anyone using it? Any math teachers?

I was introduced to the Livescribe pen at the end of this school year. It's an amazing tool - especially for math teachers because it doesn't require anything except the Livescribe pen and paper to write equations. I'm trying to figure out the best way to put it to use. Any ideas?

Tags: livescribe, math, note-taking, pen, pulse, technology

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Permalink Reply by Tosh Demsey on July 4, 2009 at 3:51pm

I too was just introduced to it at the end of this school year. I just purchased it online from Costco. I'm planning on using it to write out and explain all the notes I give my students in class. Livescribe will create movies that I can upload to their website for free. Then I plan to put hyperlinks on my classroom website so my students who are absent or trying to better understanding their notes can easily view the movies. I may find other uses in the future, but that's what I plan to use it for at this point.

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Permalink Reply by Elyse Eidman-Aadahl on July 4, 2009 at 4:16pm

I'm finding livescribe very useful. I'm not a math teacher, but I'm finding similarly that the opportunity to have a text unfold with keyed in audio is very useful for me and for students.

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Permalink Reply by Kerin Ho Mayne on July 11, 2009 at 9:47am

As the news has renewed the discussion about a possible swine-flu pandemic this Fall, I'm thinking that the Livescribe system will come in handy should I have to teach from home.

I'm thinking that maybe I should use my summer to begin preparing my LS notes to post online so I'm not trying to prepare class notes and LS notes all during the school year. I don't believe that technology is supposed to make life easier, but that it's supposed to enhance your life. However, there is a limit to the amount of extra work that I'm willing to do in addition to everything above-and-beyond that I already do. Tosh and Elyse I'm sure you can both relate to that idea...

Elyse, how are you using LS with your students? Are you doing what Tosh said she will do in this upcoming school year?

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Permalink Reply by Michelle Nichols on July 14, 2009 at 12:48pm

This is the first time I have heard of this. It sounds really need. I would like to ask my PTO to buy this for me, so I need to know if this is something that can be transferred to other teachers if they would like to use it as well. I love the ideas about posting notes on a website. That would help so many of my students.

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Permalink Reply by Kerin Ho Mayne on July 14, 2009 at 4:00pm

Michelle, check out the company site at www.livescribe.com. I think it will help answer some of your questions about the product.
I bought my starter kit at Target. It includes the pen/USB cord/docking station, a couple of refill ink cartridges, carrying case, and a 100 sheet notebook (it has special paper required for the pen to work). I bought the 2GB pen (I was told by a colleague that the memory is worth the price) for $199.
You don't have to have the hardware to read the notes that you post to the Livescribe site, but you do have to have it to post anything. There are a few videos on the company site that are worth watching. They really give you a good idea of what the Smartpen can do. It's truly amazing. (Sorry I sound like I'm selling the product...)

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Permalink Reply by Tim Fahlberg on July 20, 2009 at 12:53pm

As a former middle and high school math teacher who's worked in the area of mathcasts (podcasts/screencasts about math) for 12 years I've found the Livescribe Smartpen to be a very simple and yet powerful tool for creating mathcasts including interactive ones.

You can see some examples of pencasts/mathcasts here: (or use this TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/52uz76).

I think you'll really like what Julie McLeod has been doing with her 6th graders.

My Australian colleague Graeme has also been creating some new Livescribe math applications. See his Talking Test and Student Pencast.

If you'd like to learn how to create and share a pencast/mathcast from start to finish then watch this screencast.

There are tons of applications of the Livescribe outside of math. See my Make-Up Spelling Test as one example and be sure to read Dr. Andy Van Schaack's Research Paper "Livescribe in K-12 Education: Research Support" to learn more.

Feel free to email me at tim.fahlberg@mathcasts.org if you'd like to collaborate more about these or join our wiki.

Cheers! -- Tim Fahlberg, Mathcast Pioneer

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Permalink Reply by Kerin Ho Mayne on July 22, 2009 at 11:49am

Thanks, Tim! I'm working my way through all of the suggested links, and I'll be in touch soon!

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Permalink Reply by Z on September 2, 2009 at 8:55am

Greetings!

Like Jim, I've used the Livescribe pen personally in graduate school. I purchased mine from Target.

I additionally plan to use it to conduct/collect/record student interviews as they solve math tasks for my math ed thesis project. My thesis advisor and other department members are excited about this!

Then, like others, I plan to use it once I return to the classroom to teach math. I plan to record math notes and dictate (for lack of a better word) my Think Aloud process about how I'm solving problems. I think it would be great for students to have access to Think Alouds at their own convenience, that they can play again and again if need be.

Brainstorm: I think it would be GREAT to save one of the notebooks as a STUDENT NOTEBOOK where students could add their entries. Students love to produce to the web. Then, I could upload their work to the web. I just haven't figured out the management part of that (i.e. WHEN will students do this, and what will the other students be doing while students are recording into the notebook).

Thanks for starting the thread, Kerin . . . and thanks to all the other posters for their insights and links.

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Permalink Reply by Kerin Ho Mayne on September 2, 2009 at 9:15am

Thanks for the reply and sharing your experience, Z. I really appreciate hearing about a variety of experiences as I try to figure out the best way to make the optimal use of my Livescribe pen!

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Permalink Reply by Lesley Edwards on November 28, 2009 at 9:49am

I have just purchased a pen to use with high school students and very much appreciate all the comments here. Did you know that you can photocopy a blank livescribe notebook page and it works just as well?
I am interested in how the pen might be useful for students for whom written output and note-taking are difficult. I'm hoping that using the pen will help them to pick out keywords more easily so their notes will look more like an outline with the audio to fill in the details.

The teacher could assign a class scribe. Once the notes are posted all students could review at home and come back to class with questions or suggestions for furthering their learning.

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Permalink Reply by Bruce Boyes on December 29, 2009 at 7:43pm

A caution about photocopying pages: the microdots on each page are unique and their encoded data is what identifies the page # and portion of that page when you synch to your computer. So making 'n' copies of page 'x' will make it impossible for the Livescribe desktop software to know which is the "real" page X. If you don't care about overwriting previous copies of page X and only saving the most recent one, then photocopies might work for you.

A better idea, if you have a true Postscript printer at 1200 dpi, is to print your own microdot paper, which will not have the problem described above.