Since being introduced to the Livescribe smartpen range to Australia over 3 years ago, teachers in both Australia and New Zealand have been strong ambassadors – enthusiastically using the product and promoting its role within the education environment.

In recognition of this, Livescribe and Smartpen are pleased to announce a very special offer for teachers across Australia and New Zealand. We have on offer the Livescribe 2GB Pulse smartpen for $50. This is a ‘while stocks last offer’

Teach It Once – Helping Students Learn Anytime, Anywhere

The Pulse smartpen is already used in hundreds of primary schools, high schools, TAFE’s and Universities around Australia and New Zealand. The Pulse smartpen is helping teachers deliver a rich, anytime, anywhere learning experience for students.

Here’s an example:

Do You Qualify?

This special is open for a limited time and is based on stock availability. You qualify if:

• You’re teaching full time or part time within a primary school, high school, TAFE, or University in Australia or New Zealand.
• As a school you can purchase up to 25 pens for your school.
• If you require more than 25 pens for a school please contact Mark Parker to discuss your requirements (reach him here – mparker@smartpen.com.au)

How to Order

You can find details about the product here on our smartpen site. (Note that delivery is not included in the product cost). Please note, Smartpen ANZ accepts school issued purchase orders. Simply raise an order and fax to +61 (7) 3102 6274 or email to sales@smartpen.com.au

Questions?

Feel free to drop a comment below, or use one of these contact methods:

• Phone – (1300) 305 514 or +61 (7) 3117 2584
• Email – sales@smartpen.com.au
• Facebook – our Livescribe superstore
• We tweet here on Twitter
• Follow our company on LinkedIn
• Google+ is our latest hangout

We hope you take advantage of this special offer!

Stock Update – 5 December 2011

Please note, any orders placed on or after 5 December 2011 will be shipped to customers in mid-January. Orders placed before this date will be shipped to customers starting 5 December.

If you own a Pulse Smartpen in either Australia or New Zealand then this will be of interest to you.

We’ve now extended the offer till March 31 2012 – simply spend $25 or more in our online store, you’ll be eligible for a free Pulse smartpen accessory. We’ve got the following Pulse accessories:

Pulse Pro Charging Cradle

This is perfect for your desktop at home or in the office and gives you a convenient extra charger for your Pulse smartpen.

Pulse Premium Leather Case

If you’d like a stylish black leather carry case for your Pulse smartpen then this is perfect. It includes a flip top and a clip.

MyScript for Livescribe

Technically this isn’t a Pulse accessory but we are offering it as a free option. This is a fully licensed version of MyScript – allowing you to convert hand written notes into editable text. This option has a retail value of $29.95

How to Redeem

To take advantage of this offer:

• Spend at least $25 online with Smartpen.com.au (excluding delivery charges)
• When you checkout, includes in the order notes which accessory you would like and we’ll add it to the order

It’s that simple. This offer is available whilst stocks last.

Sold as a 6-pack of pads these look pretty cool and would be very handy for most Livescribe Smartpen Users.

Quickly capture short notes, lists, and reminders while adding audio to them. You can attach sticky notes to any printout, magazine, or book page to add personalized interactive notes.

Some applications I can see include:

• Teachers can interact with students and use sticky notes to leave follow up tips. A teacher might use a student’s sticky note to leave comments about further work, homework, or a penmail for a parent.
• A student can use sticky notes to capture thoughts or ideas as they read textbook or online content. These notes can then act as interactive reminders and stay with the textbook or in other notebooks.
• A business user could use sticky notes to capture follow up thoughts or ideas from an earlier page of content

Now here’s the bad news. This great new product isn’t available in Australia or New Zealand YET!.

Clearly we’d like to stock this product so we’re asking for your help. We’ve published a post on our Facebook wall (see here) and we’d like your feedback as to whether you’re interested in this product. You can post a comment here on the blog, send us a tweet (use the hashtag #sticky4oz) or post on our Facebook wall.

Tell us what you think – we’d love to be able to get this product into our local Livescribe community

1. Capture key learning areas in short Pencasts

Pencasts are an easy way to create, store, and share interactive tutorials. A Tutor can focus on key learning areas and easily create a library of content that can be shared with students. Pencasts used properly can become a significant marketing tool for your business as well. Building a library of Pencasts is an excellent way of differentiating your services from other Tutors.

2. Embed Pencast content into blogs, and key social networks

Once a Tutor has created content, it’s then quite easy to repurpose the content and use it in different ways. Briefly, I’d suggest at least the following:

(a)    Embed the Pencasts into blog posts on key topic areas. This is great if you’re communicating with your students on a regular basis.

(b)    Share into Moodle – Moodle’s huge in the APAC education space so being able to share specific tutorials or even longer content pieces that Moodle users can access repeatedly over time.

(c)    Push into Facebook – For Tutors working in the K-12 space, Facebook is a great channel for ongoing dialogue with students and parents.

3. Use the student’s pen to create revision content or penmail’s

If you’re working with a student who has a Livescribe Smartpen it’s logical that you can use their pen to create revision content that they can refer to later. In addition, it’s simple to create short penmail content for a parent with instructions as to what a student needs to focus on or what homework/revision should be completed.

What’s important with these ideas is that Pencasts are a highly interactive form of communication. A student doesn’t need to rely on just notes or just audio. The combination of the two is the real value that a Tutor can deliver.

How are you using Livescribe Pencasts? Have you thought about using your Livescribe Smartpen to share interactive content?

This is a US example of a teacher creating a Pencast around content that is going to be included in a future exam.

This is a point I make to a lot of teachers – use Pencasts to share knowledge once. If a key part of the curriculum can be turned into Livescribe content then create a 5-10 minute tutorial and then share this as a Pencast. Keep in mind Pencasts can be shared easily into Facebook, Moodle, WordPress etc – or simply to another computer that has Livescribe Desktop installed.

As such, I’m pleased to announce that I’m going to give this pen away to a school in Queensland so that it can be put to good use and help students who have learning difficulties.

This is the Pulse Smartpen:

We're giving away a 4GB Pulse Smartpen

Here’s the criteria you need to meet in order to qualify:

• You must work at a primary school or high school in Queensland, Australia
• Your school can be public or private
• The pen is for the school to use and determine what happens with it.
• You need to have a program that supports students who have learning difficulties or you have programs to support students from a non-English speaking background

In relation to the pen, please note:

1. It will be supplied with a single A5 spiral notebook
2. It will be updated, charged up, and ready for registration and use.
3. It includes a premium leather case and USB charging cradle.
4. No warranty is offered on the pen.

Ideally, we’d like some feedback from the school that gets the pen so that we can share this with our community. The feedback doesn’t need to be overly formal – just around how it was used, student feedback, user experiences etc.

Would You Like a Free Pulse Smartpen For Your School

Drop me an email to md@smartpen.com.au or add a comment to this post and give me some details as to your school and how you’d use the pen. I wish I had more pens to give away but alas I only have one.

The pen will be offered to a school that meets the criteria above on a first in basis. If you are the first to respond/qualify – I’ll need you to confirm the school will use the pen as per my notes above.

There is no cost to your school other than time to learn how to use the pen and encouraging students to try it.

The short answer is no. You keep using your current version of Livescribe Desktop as the software will recognise the new pen and creating a specific space for content from this new pen.

Here are the key points:

1. Keep your current version of Livescribe Desktop
2. Give your new Echo Smartpen a new or different name (see screen capture below)
3. Use the Echo Smartpen normally, docking it via the USB cable to charge/update it and manage content.
4. Take the opportunity of the new pen to make sure your Desktop software is up to date and the pen software is current.
   1. Current Livescribe Desktop version – 2.2.2.41615
   2. Current pen Firmware version – 2.4.3

Can I still Access my Pulse Content?

Yes. Livescribe Desktop allows you to dock and manage multiple Smartpen’s. To view or access content from your Pulse Smartpen simply change the pen you’re viewing. You do this via the drop down list in the top right hand corner of Livescribe Desktop

Here’s a screen capture of my Livescribe Desktop – the red box shows you where to go to change what pen you are viewing.

When you click here it will drop down a list of the pens that you manage via Livescribe Desktop. This screen capture zooms into this box more and shows the pens that I manage via my Livescribe Desktop. Mr Smartpen was my most recent Pulse Smartpen whilst Mr Echo Smartpen is my current Echo Smartpen.

I hope this post answers any questions you may have about managing content should you decide to change from a Pulse to an Echo Smartpen.

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

Next week in Adelaide, we’re going to be speaking and exhibiting at the Special Education Expo being run by SERU, a support centre under the South Australian Department of Education and Children’s Services (DECS). SERU provides a range of learning and teaching materials and specialised services which support children and students with disabilities and learning difficulties. We’ve been liaising with SERU for some time now and they are using quite a number of Livescribe Pulse Smartpens in the field.

The Expo is being held from Monday the 5th till Wednesday the 7th at the Education Development Centre in Hindmarsh.

If you are involved in education in any form and you’re in Adelaide next week, please take the opportunity to drop by the Expo.
On Monday and Tuesday I’ll be running workshops on how to use your Pulse Smartpen as well as sharing feedback from users around the country.

I’d love to meet you if you are interested in Livescribe or have one and want to talk about your experiences with this magic piece of technology