Echo SmartPen

I decided to try out the Echo SmartPen in my classroom as a way to share classnotes and instruction with students at home. It has a lot of possibilities, but so far I haven’t gotten into a routine of using it well.

It has been great for helping students learn and review at home. I’ve created math and science study guides, and parents have commented on their usefulness each time. One parent said it was helpful to hear the information the way I explained it. I know there is a lot of information out there, and many students have a hard time determining what is important and working on learning this key information. Creating your own review/learning pages helps with this.

The downside to creating your own study guides is the time involved. I’ve tried to manage this by working on portions of the project at a time. It’s still a bit overwhelming because, even when I write out my script ahead of time, I feel that everything needs to be perfect when I record.

I’ve also had students create and share review guides. This has gone very well. Students like sharing their presentations, and, of course, it helps them learn the onformation better when they teach it to someone else.

The Livescribe site doesn’t allow for me to easily search for already-posted pencasts from other teachers. Hopefully this is a feature they can add in the near future. With all the time it takes to post these pencasts, and with how useful they are, it seems a shame for them not to be used by as many people as possible.

To view sample pencasts created by me and by students, visit ourgreatlearning.edublogs.org.