7108 Module 1 Blog Posting
As an elementary student I remember day-dreaming about a magic pencil that would do my homework for me. It would write fluently in my handwriting and get all of my homework correct with little or no effort on my part. So much for childhood musings! This magic pen has shown up in the form of the Pulse SmartPen. This pen is an assistive technology to Special Needs students from sixth grade through the college years. It is used in the lower grades to help students read by their tapping the word and listening to the recording repeat it for them. The SmartPen helps teacher evaluation by capturing every word during an evaluative observation where the mentor must script, categorize and score every section of the lesson against a very specific rubric. It is invaluable that it "gets every word!" Since the evaluation does have a cash value. The SmartPen has helped productivity tremendously.
Problems and Challenges
One challenge that dogs the SmartPen is its price. While the initial price has fallen, it is still pricey. It is a pen and needs special ink cartridges, special paper and can only be loaded onto one computer. While individuals may keep up with their smart pens, teachers issued a number of them for a class must diligently keep up with them. The legal issue of recording someone must also be addressed. Students do not always feel they need to get the speaker's permission before clicking on their SmartPens. So knowing the school's or the professor's policy and following it to the letter is important.
Societal Needs and Benefits
To say that the SmartPen addresses a need, one only needs to ask a college student about their notes from a lecture. They don't need to write every word. They can tap their paper and hear what the professor is saying. They can share their notes, upload them to the computer to read and listen to them at the same time. The business person can keep detailed notes with the same listening capabilities for sharing and reviewing. The special needs student can track the lecture, capture it, upload, review and share it. Instead of taking a laptop to class the student or business person need only take their pen with its special notebook and capture every word. Essentially making a pen instead of the laptop the technology of choice when faced with carrying a heavy book-bag, is a no-brainer.
Making it Better, Avoiding Pitfalls
Keeping up with the SmartPen in a classroom where students often leave or lose pens is going to be a challenge. However, making the SmartPen magnetic so it sticks to its person's body or belongings might prove to be one solution. Another solution is to bring the price down so that the pen is more affordable. The special paper can be printed from a PC but not Mac at this time. Making it Mac-friendly would also make it better. In keeping the pen charged up and ready to write, it needs to be attached to the computer. Making a separate mobile charger would make this technology better. Finally, to assure the best use of the SmartPen for students and business people alike, it would be good to have fingerprint and or voice recognition for the owner to discourage theft.
Resources:
http://blogs.sun.com/designatsun/entry/livescribe 1gb pulse smartpen
Interesting!
ReplyDeleteBoy, was I born too late! The SmartPen is what I dreamed of during my high school and college years, but did not know what I was wanting. Taking notes has always been relatively easy for me, but trying to remember what was said between the lines was never easy and you miss so much.
Having both a recording and notes of a lecture that is linked together with a click of the pen is great. Another drawback to the SmartPen would be the online environment, unless you have live seminars, but usually they are recorded for access later by the college. Livescribe is another smartpen that is available and their web site is.
http://www.livescribe.com/
Ginger Harper
LaVerne, I am so glad that you posted this amazing technology. Some years ago, a dear friend who happens to be an engineer at IBM was visiting and he wanted to show me the prototype of a new innovation he and his team were working on... it was a touch screen-type tablet complete with an early smart pen. To see the technology on your blog post is amazing. Isn't this is the essence of Thornburg's view about the point at which a technology emerges?
ReplyDeleteThe SmartPen is definitely a great assistive technology tool. The use of this SmartPen can also give students with disabilities a sense of independence and create a positive learning environment. This technology can really change the way the disabled students are tested and lead to a greater understanding of alternative tools available to access a student's intelligence.
ReplyDelete