The Pulse Smart Pen @ Caltopia

Always on the look-out for free stuff, I took Vice Chancellor for Administration Brostrom up on his invitation to staff to attend this year's Caltopia festival on August 24th, Cal's annual kick-off to the fall semester. A small vendor booth in the Tech Zone caught my eye. 

The salesmen at Livescribe were flourishing what looked to be a regular pen, taking notes on spiral-bound paper. Turns out the pen has a built-in microphone and infrared camera and the notebook paper has a GPS system.  The pen records as the instructor talks, and the camera records as the student takes notes.  Later, the student can tap anywhere on the notepad to hear the audio linked to his or her notes.  The written notes and the audio can be uploaded to a computer for later use.  (See demo here: http://www.livescribe.com/smartpen/videos.html )

I'm excited about the possibilities here for teaching and learning:

Individual learning: students can focus their notetaking on key ideas, instead of worrying about writing down every word.

Group study:  students can share and comment on each other's notes and interpretations of the lecture.

Group projects: students can work through a project or problem collectively and have a real-time record of the evolution of their thinking process.

Assessment: A student can talk through a problem out loud, revealing gaps in reasoning or new insights in learning.

There are obvious privacy concerns here too, but one thing's certain: at a price point of $129.95 for the pen and the ability to print the GPS paper for free, these gadgets are bound to start showing up in classrooms, or even more disconcerting, your next department meeting.