Have trouble taking notes? This computer-in-a-pen can change all that

Posted on November 8, 2008
Filed Under General Interest, Helping Parents Help Kids, Improve Your Skills, Learning Tips, Teaching Tips |

If you or your child has as much trouble taking notes as I do, this cutting-edge new product can change your life. I’ve owned mine for two months and it has made my life a lot easier. I love using it.

By the way, I’m not one to be influenced by commercials or advertisements. A rare exception occurred when I saw an ad for the Smartpen. As I suspected, it would be able to help enormous numbers of students. I ordered it, so I could test it before recommending it to others. As I rarely take classes now, I didn’t expect it to be useful for me.

Useful? It’s far beyond useful; it’s phenomenal! Except when I go running, I never leave home without it.

For about half the cost of an IPod, your child will be able to fill in those annoying gaps in his school notes—guaranteed.

The Smartpen writes like a pen, but it does additional things, including:

  1. It records the audio (up to 200 hours) and,
  2. It remembers what you write!
  3. It does arithmetic and advanced math, too.
  4. It translates simple words to other languages.
  5. It does additional fun things, including playing a magical piano with rhythm accompaniment.

Since only the first two items apply to this blog, I’ll limit myself to them.

Later, if you can’t figure out what you wrote, just tap the pen on the words you wrote, and it PLAYS BACK THE AUDIO that it recorded AT THE TIME you wrote those words!!! You don’t need anything else, it plays loud and clear, right through it’s tiny speaker or through the supplied ear buds.

And, if that isn’t enough to dazzle you—this will knock your socks off.

You place it on its little USB cradle, and a graphic image of what you wrote on the paper, and audio, show up on your computer. Now you can play the audio (and read your notes) directly on the screen. But wait, there’s more.

You can play the audio back faster or slower, too, so you can SLOW DOWN the teacher enough that you can write down the notes. Still missed something? No problem, just move the slider back a tad, and try again. And, finally, if you had no problem understanding a section of your notes, tap the words where you want to skip to, and the audio resumes FROM THAT PLACE.

Simply amazing!

If they can make something this good, maybe some day someone will come up with a “magic” device that you point at the teacher. Press the teacher-slow-down button, or the teacher-repeat-the-last-words button, and the teacher will do that, just like this real SmartPen does.

Did I hear someone say, “How about adding a “make-the-lesson-more-interesting button?”

If you are interested, here is the link to see this item on Amazon.com. By the way, I don’t work for either company and they didn’t pay me even a penny to write this.

~Dr. Al, from the team Linda Silbert & Al Silbert,
authors of the award winning book Why Bad Grades Happen to Good Kids

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Comments

2 Responses to “Have trouble taking notes? This computer-in-a-pen can change all that”

  1. Regina Smola on November 13th, 2008 12:32 pm

    Hello Dr. Al,

    Thank you for the wonderful review of the Smartpen. I am intrigued to try it for my son that has problems writing and remembering. I think this would help him tremendously. Plus, it would make a great Christmas gift for him.

    I have a question that you might know the answer to.

    Do you know if schools have a problem with children bringing them to class? I know my son’s school doesn’t allow cell phones or iPods, so I wondered if you have heard anything.

    I love your blog and appreciate all that you and Dr. Linda do. Keep up the great work.

  2. admin on November 13th, 2008 6:10 pm

    Hi Regina,

    Thanks for your kind comments and your great question. This question needs to be answered in two parts.

    1. Legal Issue:

    I am awaiting a return call from the manufacturer, Livescribe. I’ll have their legal department deal with this. I’ll post their response as soon as it comes in.

    2.

    Propriety and Responsibility Issues:

    As these issues are so imporant, I’ll write about them in a new blog. Please check back soon.

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