noteworthy

Meet Little AJ. Little AJ goes to meetings, takes notes, acts as a second pair of ears and even has a buddy, a portable PA system, named Little Soul.

Little AJ is ceremony officiant Adrienne Harrell’s Livescribe Echo smartpen that she uses to help her design custom ceremonies for her business, Soulful Ceremonies.

Adrienne has found her smartpen to be extremely useful because its audio recording capability allows to her practice active listening and re-live the experience of meeting clients when she’s reviewing her notes.

“Usually when you’re meeting with someone about a ceremony, it’s a meaningful event in their life, whether it is something happy or something a little bit more complex like a memorial or a funeral,” Adrienne explains. “With my smartpen, I can have a conversation, I can ask questions, and when people are in that moment where you just want to let them talk, I’m able to listen and absorb it, making a note or two of things I really want to remember.”

One thing she really appreciates about using the Livescribe smartpen is she can revisit how ceremony participants spoke about each other.

“If I’m trying to capture a wedding experience for someone, I can revisit how they spoke about each other in a certain way,” she explains. “When I ask, ‘How does this person express their love?’ or ‘What type of feeling do you want your guests to have when they are participating in your special day?’ I don’t just have my notes. I have the actual tone of their expression of how they are feeling, and this informs my approach to ceremony design.”

Adrienne found such success using her smartpen to design ceremonies that now she uses it at her primary job in education at the University of California for tackling day-to-day activities, while in meetings and as an example of a time-management tool to show students.

“I love Little AJ,” Adrienne says. “She helps me keep tabs on the world.”

I was delighted and intrigued to read the recent review carried by the Associated Press titled “Livescribe’s Smartpen is iPad’s Opposite.”

In essence, the story is a David and Goliath comparison of Apple and Livescribe.

Livescribe’s smartpen is favorably described and reviewed.  “It records what you write, and its microphone records what you’re hearing at the same time.  It matches up the audio recording with the recorded writing, so that if you tap the pen on something you’ve already written, it will play back the audio recording, either through its built-in speaker or through headphones.  It is useful in almost any situation where you want to record something for future reference, be it a lecture or an interview.”

“Writing on the iPad isn’t easy,” continues the story, noting that styluses are awkward, and typing on a screen is tough. Agreed.

“So, the Echo is still the best tool for note-taking…” states author Peter Svensson.  Yes, as nearly a million people who have discovered this award-winning invention from Livescribe agree.

Also covered in the story, are recent advancements in smartpen software that let users send their notes and audio from paper or from their computers, to Google Docs, Microsoft OneNote, Evernote and Facebook. The author notes, “the writing looks good on the screen – much better than it would look if you simply wrote on a pad, then scanned or photographed it.” Pencasts are an interactive, digital version of your notes and audio. They allow you to hear, see and relive notes exactly as they were captured; and now, pencasts can be shared as standard PDFs, viewable with free Adobe Reader – no special software needed. (See our video on the Future According to Livescribe here.)

Svensson recommends increased pen screen size and connectivity improvements in the story, attributes that are certainly well understood by Livescribe. Rest assured that we’ve been listening carefully to our customers and are diligently at work.

A key missing component in the coverage, however, is that a smartpen customer can write the word “iPad” on a page in a notebook, and send notes and audio to an iPad, where the notes can be saved and played anytime – as pencasts with animated ink and synchronized audio!  Or, a consumer can write “mobile,” to view their notes on any Android phone, or play the notes with audio on any Android phone or tablet that supports Flash.

Livescribe smartpen owners are now viewing their notes on Apple iPads, iPhones and Android smartphones and tablets.  The notes they created with pen and paper are now easily viewed digitally, on multiple devices.

Most importantly, the story comes to a misdirected conclusion.  While the author affirmatively declares personal affinity for smartpens by saying, “I like the Livescribe pens, and find them useful,” he classifies the pens as dead-end computers, in the theme of the smartpen and iPad as opposites, with a winner and a loser.

The correct conclusion, instead, is not to drive a choice between the smartpen and iPad, but rather to highlight the incredible power of the combination of a smartpen and an iPad.  Capturing your notes, with the finesse, detail and ease of pen and paper, and then having a high-quality digital copy on your iPad, where the notes can be viewed, and played as animation with audio, is indeed a winning combination.  (We recently shared ideas for students using iPads and smartpens together for school here.)

To the degree that the Livescribe’s smartpen is iPad’s opposite, these opposites attract.  And this attraction is more than magnetic, it’s useful.

–  Jim Marggraff, Chairman, Founder and CEO of Livescribe

Last week, NPR aired a report on new research from two academic psychologists who argue that teaching to different learning styles doesn’t work – or at least that there is no scientific evidence to prove it is more effective.

Many people instinctually feel that they (or their children) are better at learning new things when they are presented in a visual manner, while others prefer auditory lessons, and still others say they retain information best when there is a hands-on or tactile element.

But Dan Willingham of the University of Virginia and Doug Rohrer of the University of South Florida both say that catering lessons to visual, auditory or tactile learning styles is baseless.  Willingham’s contention is based on brain function, while Rohrer’s perspective is based on the absence of randomized, controlled studies that uphold the claims of the more than 70 different learning styles that have been identified over the years.

The findings produced a mountain of feedback – 210 comments on the NPR site and more than 15,000 posts to Facebook – much of it arguing for the validity of learning styles.

We’re not going to make a judgment on which side in this debate is right.  The science and supporting evidence are always evolving.  But the report does conclude on a point that both common sense and recent research validate: teaching a topic or concept over longer periods of time does improve retention and comprehension.  In short, repetition aids learning.

That’s something we’ve heard from student users of Livescribe smartpens since their introduction – the ability to go back over their notes and revisit lectures or lessons dramatically improves their understanding of the topic being studied. And that rings true for visual or auditory learners. Educators often tell us that regardless of a student’s learning style – whether auditory or visual – the Livescribe smartpen works well for both. With pencasts a student can visually watch the notes and classroom lecture replay and for students who learn by listening, they can replay their notes as many times as they need.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this debate.