Business
Livescribe: Fixing note taking once and for all
The Livescribe echo smartpen has the potential to change the way we teach, learn, and recall information.
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![note-taking-nerd3.jpg](https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/2014/10/04/2b1fcfce-4b67-11e4-b6a0-d4ae52e95e57/note-taking-nerd3.jpg)
Next: OK, but how does it work? »
Here's how it works: First of all, you have to use Livescribe's consumables with the pen. They have journals, notebooks, paper refills, etc. This is perhaps the greatest weakness of the device, but the tiny dots and built-in controls on each sheet also give the pen its power, so the consumables are a relatively small price to pay. Here's where things get interesting, though. Click the printed record icon on any page of one of these Livescribe papers and the pen not only begins recording what you write, but also what is being said. The sound recordings are then synced with the pen capture such that at any time (once you press the printed stop or pause icons on the page), you can click a word, picture, doodle, or mark on the page and the pen will automatically start playing the audio recording from the point at which you made the mark. For example, if a student wrote down an equation and the steps the instructor took to solve it in his notebook, he could come back to the equation that night as he was working on homework problems, click the equation, and hear the teacher's instruction related to the solution. He could even hear any questions that were asked in class about individual steps in solving the equation and how the teacher responded. Taking this a step further, the synchronized audio and writing/drawing can be saved as "pencasts." The pencasts can then be managed on a Windows or Mac PC running the free Livescribe Desktop software from which users can search, label, and export the files. Connecting the echo to the computer via the included USB cable automatically launches the software and uploads the pencasts. These pencasts can then be shared in every users' free 500MB cloud-based Livescribe account, making them available to other users or to themselves if they switch computers. Here's one pencast that a teacher uploaded. Notice how the audio is really key with the writing (that appears on the fly) as simply visual cues: Some teachers have begun using their Livescribe paper with a document camera, replacing an interactive whiteboard, overhead projector, or slide deck with pencasts that get captured and can be uploaded for reference later on. Others get a little fancier and use them as supplemental tools as in the pencast above. Regardless, the possibilities here are extraordinary. Instead of needing to write absolutely everything and missing the forest for the trees, or writing nothing because students are overwhelmed or apathetic, students can now record the full audio of a lesson and cherry pick key figures, notes, dates, or items to write in their Livescribe notebooks. Then, the audio that prompted these notes is always available and students can engage in the way that makes the most sense. When I first started using the pen, I found myself trying to write everything that I was saying or hearing. It took me a couple of pages to realize that the real beauty of the pen was to simply write or draw what I synthesized from a discussion or a picture of what I wanted to get across and let the synchronized audio handle the rest. Once I made that leap, the pen became an efficient tool for me to supplement my typed notes with drawings, figures, audio, and jotted notes. Whether this becomes a teaching tool in your school or the note taking tool of choice for your students, it's clear that Livescribe's latest gadget can precede, supplement, or complement everything from 1:1 computers to smartboards. This is not the FLY pentop computer that Toys R Us markets, although it shares some of the technology. This is a genuinely disruptive tool that can change the way students and teachers interact in the classroom.