[Athen] Livescribe and note taking

Kruzel, Rachel kruzel at augsburg.edu
Fri Nov 7 07:46:00 PST 2014


Hello,

Our office currently has 45 of the Echo Smartpens in either the 4GB or 2GB
models. We loan them out term by term to students. We don't limit how many
terms they can check them out or have a try before you buy program. We
encourage students to purchase if they are effective but most continue to
borrow ours. We have students turn them in at the end of every term so we
reset the pen using the Smarpten Flash software you can download from the
Livescribe website, we then update the pens, and clean and disinfect them.
If students don't turn the pen in at the end of the term, a charge of $200
goes on their student account until it is returned.

We have chosen to not buy any of the pens with WiFi capability as it's too
difficult to transfer notes. The Echo uses a USB cord to transfer the notes
to a student computer. All pens are registered to our office in case issues
arise. The WiFi pens are tied to an Evernote account which makes it more
difficult to reset for the next student to use.

We have cases for the pens to help keep the pen safe and keep the ear buds
which we also provide to mitigate the scratching noise all together. We
provide notebooks to students as well. Occasionally, we've had faculty
check a pen out from our office for classroom use. We spend 20-30 minutes
training the student on the pen and download the Desktop program to their
computer so they can archive their notes indefinitely.

Our office finds that if the student needs notetaking support and can use
technology, the time it takes to train and set a student up with the pen is
much less time and more effective in way than finding a peer notetaker and
insuring the student is getting quality notes in a timely manner. Overall,
students love these pens and we're finding them a good tool for student
use.

Our office also supplies about 15 licenses of Audio Notetaker out per term.
As mentioned before, it's a software program that incorporates PowerPoints,
Typed Notes, and Audio recording of the lecture into an easy to use and
visually appealing interface.You're able to annotate your notes and
recordings with different colors. There's also an app that goes with this
now too. I'd encourage you to take a look at it. It has an an easy
distribution process so you can have the software installed on a computer
and release a license to a student for a set amount of time. Then, the
license is back in your possession once the time lapses. No need to track
down the software or reset it like the Smarpten. This product has taken off
in the higher ed market in the UK, and in Canada but the US is far behind.
It's worth a look!


Rachel

Rachel Kruzel
Accommodations Specialist
CLASS Office
Augsburg College

Phone: 612-330-1353
Fax: 612-330-1137

2211 Riverside Ave CB 57
Minneapolis, MN 55454

On Thu, Nov 6, 2014 at 4:42 PM, Lisa Brandt <lisa.brandt1 at pcc.edu> wrote:


> Hi Lorraine,

>

> We have both a student loaner program and a faculty UD pilot at PCC.

>

> We limit students to checking out the pens for one term only, since this

> is meant to be a "try-before-you-buy" courtesy loan, so that they can see

> if they are helpful enough for them to buy their own. We also have a number

> of pens with failed screens that otherwise work well, and students are

> permitted to check those out for multiple terms. So far we've had no

> students who want to check those out, though.

>

> We're using the 4 GB Echo for student loaners, and 8 GB Echo for faculty

> loaners. I have tried to help a couple of people who bought one of the

> newer wifi models, but they have proven exceedingly difficult to set up (at

> least on the network we have here). As you probably know, the Livescribe 3

> cannot be used without an iOS device, so we don't recommend that model for

> general use.

>

> We also have high demand for the pens, and have been purchasing more each

> term. Students receive 20-30 minutes of training upon checkout. They are

> always very enthusiastic about the pens, but I have seen many pens returned

> with only a couple of note pages used. We are looking into what's happening

> and ways to address that.

>

> It can be difficult to get the pens returned on time. Either students

> don't want to give them up, or they are too easily lost because of their

> size. Although we prefer that students return the pen that they originally

> checked out, we do allow them to purchase a replacement for us if they

> don't want to bother with moving to a new pen.

>

> To mitigate the scratching sound mentioned by Jane Berk, we also have

> Livescribe 3D Recording Headset available for checkout:

> http://amzn.com/B007JUS330 These are earbuds with embedded stereo

> microphones.

>

> Our UD pilot program allows interested faculty members to check out a pen

> with the condition that any notes created are shared with all students in

> the class. Some instructors use the pen to create materials; others have a

> student or notetaker take notes. We then survey the students toward the end

> of the term to see whether they used the notes and found them useful.

>

> Please let me know if you have any questions!

>

> Lisa

> --

> Lisa Brandt, PCC Disability Services

> Accessibility Technician

> Alternate Media Formats Technician

> 971-722-4366

> SY CC 260

>

> _______________________________________________

> athen-list mailing list

> athen-list at mailman13.u.washington.edu

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>

>

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