I have to say, this is a beautiful product. I didn’t get a chance to have a close look at this product initially as every one we had come in was assigned to an existing order. But now that our stocks are to the par I’ve had a chance to pull one out and let me say it’s not going back into inventory.

Given I have to travel every week this is exactly what I need. It fits really well into my laptop bag and works super well if I want to take notes mid flight or when I’m on a train or in a cab.

If you’re a business user and you have either a Pulse Smartpen or the new Echo Smartpen – then this is a great accessory.

I’ve been travelling around the country recently and I’m always amused to see the other passengers suddenly take notice of the Livescribe ad during the inflight entertainment program.

Last week one passenger across the aisle from me was madly trying to write down the details that I couldn’t help but hand him my business card – inflight ad to inflight Livescribe demo to inflight Livescribe sale…

As an aside, did you know we’ve introduced an Australian version of the Livescribe Pro Pack?

We now offer a 2GB Pro Pack and a 4GB Pro Pack. These packs include:

• 2GB or 4GB Livescribe Pulse Smartpen in Titanium (not black as shown on the US site)
• MyScript for Livescribe – fully licensed version for Mac or PC
• Pro charging Cradle
• Premium Black Case.

Details of both Australian Livescribe Pro Pack bundles are available here

If you have any questions about the Pro Pack please don’t hesitate to contact me directly either via comments here on the blog or via the website

Put simply, it allows a Livescribe user to create custom notebooks inside Livescribe Desktop where they can then park content that they may have created across a number of different Livescribe notebooks.

How Is This Useful?

Let me give you a couple of examples.

Livescribe Custom Notebooks for Student Use

I contacted one of our local customers who’s a university student. His comments included:

I really like this feature. It now allows me to organise notes across subjects and even better across assignments. So if I’m doing research on a specific assignment I simply create a custom notebook and then whenever I’m taking notes on this I write the assignment name at the top of the page. This means once I dock my pen I can search and then move the pages into the relevant notebook.

Livescribe Custom Notebooks for Business Use

I spoke to a Sydney Livescribe user – Craig Henshaw from Practical Impact. Craig works in the strategic consulting space and is often working on multiple assignments.

I appreciate the fact I can take notes for specific clients and put them into individual folders so easily. This comes in handy when reviewing work with clients as it means I simply click on the folder and can see all relevant notes in one place.

This YouTube video will take you through a tutorial on how to create custom notebooks.

If you’re a Livescribe Pulse Smartpen user – 2GB or 4GB pen, and you’re on the later versions of Livescribe Desktop then you have access to this feature.

Your feedback as always is appreciated.

Here’s a snapshot of the 2GB pens:

The 4GB Pens are listed in a similar way.

I trust these changes make navigation easier on our site. Any feedback will always be appreciated.

Here is another example of how students and teachers are collaborating around learning content.

In this example, a teacher is creating homework tutorials for students in his physics class.

This type of example is what we’re seeing emerge here in Australia, as more and more teachers are using the Pencast functionality from Livescribe to deliver assistance to students outside the classroom.

There are a variety of ways Livescribe Pencasts can be shared including embedding the content into collaborative tools like Moodle.

Like podcasts, videos, tweets and digital photos, Pencasts are a new online communication tool, allowing anyone to digitally share notes, ideas, drawings and conversations from pen and paper online for the first time.

We’re talking to a number of Australian schools about how they are using Pencasts and in the coming weeks I hope to be able to share some examples with everyone.

In the meantime, here’s a great list of Pencasts from a Professor of Mechanics at Purdue University in the US.

Gary’s also one of the leading advocates of creative thinking in Australia. As part of the workshop Gary gave everyone a unlined journal – he refers to them as a creative thinking journal.

This got me thinking about how I use my Livescribe Pulse Smartpen and it dawned on me that the Pulse Smartpen and our own unlined journals are a perfect example of how technology can support creative thinking in a natural, unobtrusive way.

The Livescribe Smartpen captures what a person writes and allows them to add audio if need be. So whether a user is drawing mind maps, brain storming, or simply making written and verbal notes, the Pulse Smartpen and pads capture this content. Importantly MyScript then allows a user to transcribe and share this content.

To support creative thinking, we’ve created a new bundled solution called the Livescribe Creative Thinking bundle. The pack will include a 4GB Livescribe Pulse Smartpen, a set of Creative Thinking Journals, and MyScript for Livescribe. Until the end of March, we’re also offering free shipping on this bundle.

If you’ve already got your Smartpen, you can purchase a set of Livescribe Creative Thinking Journals for $49.95.

Finally, if you want more information on how to embrace creative thinking, or to fire up your mojo – then visit Gary’s website or sign up for his Expresso newsletter.

A lot of what we know is based on feedback from student users as well as the many dedicated disability support officers who do a wonderful job.

Livescribe Adding Real Value

What we’re hearing is that the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen is having a really positive impact. Students, parents, and teachers have found the Smartpen is helping the learning experience and is now an integral part of the student’s life.

Here are 5 key points:

1. Livescribe has changed how they take notes – this was an almost universal piece of feedback. Because Livescribe captures the audio, students are now less worried about taking detailed notes or keeping up with the teacher as they are able to take brief notes on key points during a lesson and then fill in content afterwards by replaying the audio.
2. Recall is much better – this is a point I wish more able bodied students would pick up on. For those students using Livescribe they are experiencing greater retention of learning’s as they are replaying key parts of lessons and recalling the knowledge both verbally and through their own additional notes.
3. Students don’t feel so alienated – Livescribe not only gives them some peer credibility in the classroom (they’ve got the cool talking pen) but it also means they feel less ‘odd man out’ in the classroom as they can often participate like other students rather than requiring (as much) special attention.
4. Parents can take more of a mentor/tutor role – Livescribe is helping parents help their children. This was really nice feedback to get. On many occasions we’ve spoken to parents and even grandparents about how Livescribe has helped them focus homework and recall efforts on critical parts of the lesson.
5. Greater interaction between teachers, students, and parents – following on from my last point we’ve seen on a number of occasions teachers, support staff, students, and parents working interactively to ensure students have clear content to review or learn. For teachers, it’s often as simple as a short 2-3 minute one on one dialogue with the student where either will make written and verbal notes regarding what material to review as homework or additional learning.

Interestingly, we’re now starting to see Livescribe used in more and more lower grades – primarily by teachers as they seek to capture and share content inside and outside of the classroom.

One key barrier that I’m hearing about all too often is schools and teachers denying these students the opportunity to use Livescribe in the classroom. Whilst the concerns of teachers, and administrators are real and valid, there is nothing stopping these concerns being addressed.

This is something we plan to focus on in the coming months.

In the meantime, if you have a story to share please feel free to use comments or drop us a line – we’d love to hear how you’re using the Livescribe pen

The Livescribe team has kindly organised a social event with Jim on Monday night the 17th February.

Details of the event are here

This is a great opportunity to meet Jim and some of the team – including the Smartpen team.

I hope to see you there.