Instructional Technology Ponderings

Imagine a pen that takes notes, records audio, and stores all of this data for later retrieval. Well, here it is Livescribe’s smartpen. This pen is a mini computer that stores data and then allows users to gain access to the information through a couple of different avenues.

Let’s take an example of a student. A student takes notes of their teachers lectures and stores this information in their ‘paper’ notebooks. If a student is using this pen, the information is stored both  in the paper notebook and in the pen itself. A students can write notes and record the lecture in the pen at the same time. When students later review their notes they can click on a specific word with the smartpen to listen to what the teacher said at that very point in the lecture. Wow.

Students can also connect this smartpen to a computer and transfer data in order to back it up and even search for words within their notes.

This is a technology tool that has a lot of potential for student learning.