Livescribe Releases Firmware Update that Adds Sound Stickers

If you are a Livescribe SKY WiFi Smartpen user you will be happy to learn that Livescribe pushed out a firmware update that adds the Sound Stickers app to the mix. So now if you have some Sound Stickers around give it a try and you will see how wonderfully they work. Sound Stickers are a great tool for the classroom and now its even simpler to use. Updating your Livescribe SKY WiFi is extremely simple-you can go to the Inside Cover of your Starter Notebook and tap your pen on the Software Update icon. You will also find that your black ink looks smoother and bolder when it is viewed in the Livescribe Player. Similarly, the audio that is depicted by green ink looks bolder and seems to render much more smoothly. So if you have a chance update your  Livescribe SKY WiFi pen and begin to experience the difference!

Supporting Students with Special Needs in the Mainstream with the Livescribe Sky WiFi Smartpen

All of us are living in a time when technology is moving at a lightning speed, at times far out stripping our capacity to see how we can harness the power of the tools that are set before us. I have been working in the field of special education and assistive technology  for the better part of thirty years and have always felt that technology would be the one factor that would alter the way we instruct and the way we would reach students with special learning needs. To this day, I continue to educate and teach and believe more than ever that assistive technology tied with the right strategies can help students learn and help teachers differentiate their instruction. In many ways, the tools of the trade have gotten more robust, more plentiful and more multi-dimensional which causes us to have to reflect on how they can be best used. It wasn't that long ago that when we bought an application or piece of hardware it did one thing and did it well. You see many of the devices that we use today are multi-purpose which are only limited by time and our imagination. Such is the case with the Livescribe Sky Wifi Smartpen.

I have been using the Livescribe Smartpens since it was released and have recommended it to countless teachers and students to help support their learning. The ability to link audio to the ink on the page is really ingenious and is a wonderful tool for students who have difficulty listening to lectures and taking notes at the same time. With a simple tap of the pen on the paper the notes can be listened to which is a real game changer for students. With the introduction of the  Livescribe Sky WiFi Smartpen, archiving and syncing has changed; all accomplished via WiFi and a Evernote account. Now without having to think about it you can  do your work and your notes are archived in the cloud and accessible via any device connected to the internet. A dream come true for many us who want to have access to our notes. While there are other services that let you save notes in the cloud, the Livescribe Sky Wifi Smartpen gives you the ability to store your notes and audio in one place- which is fantastic. While there are lots of ways to use the Livescribe Sky WiFi Smartpen in schools, let me suggest one which could have powerful learning ramifications.

With the move to the least restrictive environment it is not unusual when looking at a child's I.E.P. to find that many students who are in the mainstream are being supported by a special education teacher or instructional aide in their general education classroom.  Having an extra pair of hands and eyes is a great accommodation for students who may need the extra support in the mainstream. Now what would happen if that special education teacher used the Livescribe Sky Wifi Smartpen to take notes for those students that have it in their I.E.P. as an accommodation? Now we are talking! The Livescribe Sky Wifi Smartpen can be used to share just the notes (ink) or the ink and audio- it all depends on how it is going to be utilized. Now that the  Livescribe Sky Wifi Smartpen syncs with Evernote-sharing the notes just got a whole lot easier! You see from within Evernote, with a click of the mouse you can make the note shareable via a URL. Once you have the URL you can post it on your website or portal and now every student that needs access to the note can access it from any browser connected to the web. Supporting students with notes just got a whole lot easier and enable you to provide the notes or the notes and associated audio. With you in control of the  Livescribe Sky Wifi Smartpen you can decide which makes the most sense and provide your students with a great digital support. Providing students with classroom notes just got a lot easier and one that I know your students will love to access. So if you are a special education teacher who is doing in-class support think about how you can use the  Livescribe Sky Wifi Smartpen to take note taking to whole new level- you will be glad you did!

Quartet Kapture - Mixing the Best of Both Worlds

I have always been impressed by what can be accomplished using digital pen and paper solutions and so I am excited to announce that I will be carrying a new solution, Quartet Kapture which is ideal for capturing ideas on flip charts.

Quartet Kapture is as easy to use as a traditional flip chart with markers and will not change the way you use a flip chart in your sessions. All you need to get started is the Quartet Kapture Starter Kit which includes a digital marker, USB Bluetooth key, Quartet Kapture software and a digital flip chart pad. Quartet Kapture is easy to set up and within minutes you will be able to capture everything that you write on the flip chart to your Windows or Macintosh computer. Quartet Kapture knows exactly which page you are writing on and so it is easy to jump from one sheet of the  flip chart pad to another as you would using a traditional flip chart. Quartet Kapture includes a 22.5 x 33 inch, self-stick flip-chart pad which makes capturing your ideas a cinch. Once you have captured your ideas with Quartet Kapture and your session is over you can edit your notes and email them to all of your participants as a PDF or JPEG file. If you are interested in a online demo or need a price quote please email me. Quartet Kapture Starter Kit starts at just $249.00 dollars.

See for yourself how much more productive your meetings can be when you use Quartet Kapture.

Sign up for a free online demo by clicking here

To Purchase Click Here

Livescribe Sky WiFi Smartpen Soars to the Clouds

On Monday, Livescribe will release a new and improved digital smartpen called Livescribe Sky WiFi which will forever change the way we take and access our notes. While I have been a big fan of the Livescribe Smartpen the one downfall was the synching which you needed to do with a USB cable. But that all changes with the introduction of the Livescribe Sky WiFi which lets you sync your notes directly to Evernote via WiFi. This truly is a huge paradigm shift- giving me access to my notes on just about any device that has a browser or the Evernote app installed. Similarly, I can now log into Evernote from any computer and instantly have access to my notes which is very powerful. This feature is a truly a game changer for taking notes, and will give students access to their notes from anywhere they are connected to the web.

Getting started and setting up the Livescribe Sky WiFi to sync with Evernote was a cinch. I simply turned on the Livescribe Sky WiFi and tapped Scan for Networks icon which was printed on the inside cover of the Livescribe Starter Notebook. The Livescribe Sky WiFi immediately located my protected WiFi network and I was able to type in the password key to access it on my pen. Once connected to my Wifi network the Livescribe SkyWiFi  prominently displays the Wifi icon on the OLED display to let you know you are connected. Logging onto the Livescribe web site from my computer, I was able to setup my pen to access my Evernote account. The website and directions were well designed and it guided me through the process. Since I did have an Evernote account I was able to log in with my credentials to link my Livescribe Sky WiFi pen. For students who may not have an account there is an opportunity during the setup process to sign up for a free account. Once I completed the setup, I was ready to try the Livescribe Sky WiFi out. I opened the Livescribe Starter Notebook and wrote down a couple of ideas and then tapped the tip of the pen on the Sync Now icon. Once I did that I was able to watch the display as it moved through the syncing process  Once the synching was complete the OLED display read Done Syncing. Now for the moment of truth, I opened up Evernote from my laptop and lo and behold there was my note sitting in my Evernote account in a notebook configured A5 Wifi Starter Notebook. Audio recordings made during the note taking process show up in the note as green ink. When you are ready to listen to you note simply click on the note from within Evernote and the Livescribe player will open in your browser to access and listen to the recording.

Livescribe has really streamlined the process making it now possible to have access to your notes from any device connected to the web. Syncing via WifFi with integration with Evernote really is a game changer for students who need access to their notes. I for one am excited with the new impossibles that the Livescribe Sky Wifi pen has to offer in terms of sharing and accessing notes via Evernote.

Livescribe Releases Sound Stickers App

While I was at ISTE 2011 I had a chance to visit with Livescribe and find out all of the latest developments that are happening with the Livescribe technology. For the past couple of years many of us who have been using the Livescribe pens have come with some interesting ways to adapt the technology so that text can be read on ordinary paper. I have highlighted that in some of my older blog posts- but today using the Livescribe Sound Sticker app and the supplied Sound Stickers you can quickly place a sticker on any paper and tap the sticker to record whatever you like. Once you download the latest version of the Livescribe Desktop software and the Livescribe Sound Stickers Application you can peel off a Sound Sticker and place it any where you like on a page. Now simply click in the Record button-tap a sticker and start recording - tap one more time to confirm and you are good to go. To play the associated sound simply tap the pen on the sticker to hear your play back. If you would like to re-record-you can click in the Delete button and quickly delete the sound that is associated with the sticker. Using the Sound Stickers I'm sure you can think of all kinds of ways to make accommodations for students with reading disabilities. Place stickers on books, tests, or set up schedules complete with helpful reminders- the possibilities are endless. Let me know how you intend to use Sound Stickers with your Livescribe Smartpen by leaving a comment.

Personal Touch High Tech- The Livescribe Pen in Action

If you are in business you know just how important written communication is in helping you to stay connected to your clients. While a lot has been written about business people writing personal notes, I know that it is time consuming and can add some costs to the bottom line. But what would happen if you could write that personal note in your handwriting and send it off as an email? Now you get the best of both world- the ability to write a personal note in your handwriting and send it off as an email. Using the Livescribe Echo Pen and the new Livescribe Connect services I was able to write my personal note on the Flip Notepad paper and then send it via the Livescribe Connect service to a special educator who registered for the Summer iPad Institute which will be held July 12 and 13th at the Warren Middle School, Warren, NJ. (If you are interested in registering for the iPad Institute click here). Think of what a nice touch it is when he receives via an email a personal note for me confirming his registration. Using the Livescribe Connect Service was extremely easy and all of the mechanics of the email are handled from within the Livescribe Desktop Software.

In order to accomplish this task, I simply wrote my note on the Flip Notepad paper and then synched it to the Livescribe Desktop Software. I then Right clicked on the handwritten note and choose the Email option. I had the option to send the handwritten note as a PDF or PNG file and selected the PDF format. Once I clicked OK a small dialog box popped up that let me enter the recipients email address with a subject. Clicking OK sent the email with the handwritten note. It is really that simple. So if you are looking for a high tech way to add that personal touch you may want to think about using the Livescribe Echo Pen to send up your next personal handwritten note.

Using Livescribe Connect with my Echo Smartpen

Last June, at the ISTE 2010 Conference I had the opportunity to meet with Jim Marggraff where he showed me what was in store for the Livescribe line of smartpens. Well today, Livescribe released Livescribe Connect which provides users with a host of new features and connectivity. One of the most exciting features from my perspective is being able to create an Adobe Acrobat Pencast PDF which is able to be played with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. In fact today, I found out that the Acrobat Pencast PDF  works just fine with Adobe Acrobat Professional Version 9.4 which is on my Dell computer. In order to use the Livescroibe Connect features you will have to update the Livescribe Desktop software and your pen's firmware. The update went without a hitch and now the moment of truth was about to take place. I turned on my pen and did a short recording on a sticky note which I wanted to send to my Facebook page. After the recording was completed I used the convention of drawing a short line from left to right and back again and then was prompted to write the command- which I did by writing "Facebook" above the line. I was then prompted to select the page by tapping it and I finished the session by double tapping on the page. Now the LED screen on the pen prompted me to dock my pen which I did and within seconds my sticky note appeared in my Facebook page. Now anyone coming to my Facebook page can play and listen to the pencast right with the browser. Livescribe Desktop software supports a number of connectors which I'm sure you will find very handy. These include: Google Docs, Evernote, Email, Facebook, Mobile, Computer, and MyLivescribe. So if you have a Echo Smartpen then rush right over to the Livescribe website and update your software and pen so you too can take advantage of  Livescribe Connect- I'm sure you will enjoy the functionality just as much as I have!

New Digital Pen & Paper Solution from AssistiveTek, LLC

Over the years I have delved into the digital pen and paper arena to find a rich set of powerful and easy to use solutions to address both personal and business needs. Whether-I am using Livescribe Echo pen to record my notes or Xpaper to prepare my signed documents or PaperShow for Teachers to do my lectures and presentations - I always find that each digital pen affords me the opportunity to enhance what I am doing and make my work flow that much more efficient. In this light, I recently began to explore some new digital pen solutions from a company called PenData Solutions from California. PenData Solutions offers a rich set of solutions that is built upon Anoto functionality that takes the digital pen and paper solution to the next level.

Side by Side View: Handwriting on Left and Processed Form on the Right
Click on Image to Zoom In

If you work in an environment that demands that you collect information on traditional forms and then you have to re-key the data then you are a perfect candidate for using a digital pen solution. Working closely with Pen Data Solutions, AssistiveTek, LLC can build a custom solution that meets your business or organizations needs. Imagine all of the time saved when you can fill out the paper form with a digital pen and then when you get back to the office have the information flow seamlessly into your computer ready to be processed. Using state of the art handwriting recognition software your forms can be checked and validated and outputted as a Microsoft Word or PDF document. Better yet we can design the form so that each data point can be mapped to your internal database for further analysis. Think of the times savings that will occur when you institute this type of solution.

One of the factors which has always drawn me to this technology is ease of use. As a consultant, I spend most of my time training others on how to use hardware and software. To tell you the truth, if you know how to use a pen and paper you are set to go. The pen operates like an ordinary pen except for the fact that it can make sense of where it is on the page with its built-in camera which is oriented by the microdot pattern on the paper. As a mobile user- you can simply complete the form and when you are back in the office dock your pen to complete the process. The process is easy and seamless and just works. Think of the hours saved on data entry and think about the reliability of the data coming into the system as compared to when users are manually re-keying in information they are pulling off of forms.

If you are working in environments that still dictate the collection of data on paper forms- then you really owe it to yourself to take a look at the latest digital pen and paper solution that is being offered by AssistiveTek, LLC. If you are interested in a free demo to see if this is the right solution for you then click here to register and I will get back to you on a time and date that we can meet over the web. Come and learn about the advantages of using digital pen and paper solutions in your business or organization and how it can help solve your needs.

Xpaper to the Rescue

In the last week, I have several different opportunities to use Xpaper which really helped me out in a pinch. In the first instance, I was completing a credit check application to a computer distributor so that I could resell Okidata printers as part of digital pen and paper solution. The company dutifully sent me a link to their Credit Application which I completed online. When the form was completed, I was able to save it as a PDF- now my challenge was that the Credit Application had to be signed by me in several places. With Xpaper that was an easy task! I simply printed the Credit Application Form using the Xpaper driver to my OkiData printer and signed the Credit Application Form with my Logitech Digital pen. When I docked my pen I had a crystal clear PDF with my signature ready to email back to the computer company. Using the built-in workflow my signed PDF was automatically uploaded and stored to GoggleDocs. How is that for automation? There are a host of different work-flow routing (SharePoint) and connectors (ftp, email) that make storing your documents easy to accomplish. All of this took seconds to accomplish with Xpaper. Back in the day I would have had to scan the entire document and it would have never looked as good as the output from Xpaper. Find out how your business or company can use Xpaper to automate your paper work flow and make the paper work for you! To arrange a free demo click here to register and I will be in touch with you.

Papershow in Action

Today I had the good fortune of working with teachers from the East Brunswick Public Schools as part of their Professional Development In-service Program. Well over 100 teachers spent a full day with me as we explored a range of new tools and strategies to help address the needs of all learners in their classrooms. It was very exciting for me to see the lights go off as I introduced them to Web 2.0 technologies as as free tools that they could start using tomorrow in their classroom. A lot has changed since I entered the field of assistive technology and it is really incredible how much can be done and accomplished with some of the new Web 2.0 technologies to help address reading, writing, and math. During my presentation I introduced the teachers to Google Doc's, NaturalReader, MyWebspiration, as well as technologies that could take text and convert them to MP3 files. You could see the wheels were turning as the teachers reflected on their students.

During the presentation I brought along Papershow, to demonstrate for the teachers. I quickly realized just how powerful a tool this could be when doing presentations. With Papershow I could quickly write down a website or any other information that I wanted to share and have it viewed through my data projector. Throughout the day, I used Papershow and it worked flawlessly- I just have to remember to bring along a spare AAA battery for the pen. I was impressed that the software did alert me that the battery was low. In any case having Papershow, was like having a portable interactive whiteboard that I could write on and share my ideas. To read more about my experiences with Papershow click here.

You can take a look at the ground that I covered today in the workshop by viewing my Google Presentation. If you or your school are interested in having me come out and do a workshop or presentation on this topic please feel free to email me.

Papershow Coming Real Soon!

First, I would like to thank Molly from Bell Pottinger USA for sending me a sample Papershow Kit. For some reason I have been attracted to digital pen technology for the past 6 years or so and have tried a lot of the solutions that are now available that take advantage of Anoto functionality. Just last week I was fortunate enough to be able to try Papershow which is a new digital pen solution from Canson a European paper company who will release this solution the end of the week. In the kit I received a digital pen, a Bluetooth USB key, and two pads of interactive paper. The current solution only runs on Windows at this time and when you plug in the Bluetooth USB key the setup software launches and downloads the latest version of the Papershow software application to the Bluetooth USB key which also serves as Flash drive. Once the installation was complete I was took the cap of the digital pen off and it paired with the Bluetooth receiver. Now I was ready to go. I took out a piece of the A4 interactive paper and started to write on it and instantaneously whatever I write came up on the computer screen. I have recently done several demonstrations in my graduate cl assess of this technology and all of my students whom are teachers themselves said they wanted one. On the right side panel of the A4 interactive paper you have controls to change the width of the pen stroke, change the colors and draw basic lines, arrows, circles and squares. You can also fill the circles and squares with a color and highlight text with the highlighting tool. You can even erase your writing and objects on the computer with the eraser tool. To add another page simply click on the add page icon and you are presented with a clean slate. Having the Papershow pen and interactive paper gives you the freedom to walk around the class with a very light weight interactive tool. I was able to move throughout my classroom without a hitch. The digital pen and Bluetooth USB key worked flawlessly-recording all of my pen strokes. My graduate students were very excited with what they saw and all wished they could have one in their class to engage their students and I had with mine.

I passed the interactive paper and pen to each of my students so that they could have a try at using some of the features. They all found the interface very easy to use and within seconds they were able to use all of the features. For one of their class projects they need to create a video tutorial of them teaching a user how to use a piece of software. I demonstrated how they might use Jing and Papershow to model how to a specific type of math problem which they could then post to a web site. Using Papershow the students were able to create a screencast demonstrating how to do a simple multiplication process. With the Papershow application on the screen we started up Jing and my student recorded the process of a simple multiplication problem. Working with digital pen makes doing this type of task very easy to do. You will see in the screencast just how easy it was for my student to create the screencast.


While I found and education use for this program I could see this tool being very effectively used in a business meeting to capture ideas and share them immediately after the meeting. The Papershow software allows one to save the session as well as Export to a PDF, which makes it very easy to share the session after the meeting has adjourned. I have not had a chance to try it just yet, but in the Papershow Kit you will find 8 1/2 x 11 interactive paper to print your PowerPoint slides on which can then be marked up and annotated with the digital pen. There are lots of creative ways to use this technology and I for one, will begin to explore more of these avenues in the future. As I shared with Molly, I think that there is a real place for this type of technology in K-12 and higher education. I especially think that integrating this technology into distance learning classes could be a real winning solution. So if you have the chance take a look at Papershow Kit which will be sold at Staples.com. The Showpaper Kit will be sold for $198.00 dollars and will give you everything you need to get started. Paper Pricing is as follows

o $19.98 for 200 sheets of printer paper

o $19.98 for large, conference-room sized brainstorming pad (size A3)

o $12.98 for small brainstorming pad (size A4)

Check it out you will be glad you did- Brian