Gill-Ville's Talking Tree of Thanks

This is a cross post from the Live Learning with Livescribe Blog.

I am honored to have been asked by the livescribe TLLP project team to guest blog about using the Livescribe pen with my special education class. We just recently began to use the pen in our classroom, so it was important for students to have a simple activity to experiment with the function of the pen. Motivation was extremely high to record and play back voices using this device. We decided to create a “Talking Tree of Thanks” for our school’s Thanksgiving assembly. Each leaf has a different message that can be heard just by touching the dot we drew on each one. As word spread around the school about our little project, teachers and students from other classes were stopping by to see how the pen works, and to add a message of their own! For the most part, each student was successful with this activity. One issue that students occasionally faced involved touching the dot-paper when they were recording. Some touched too lightly or not at all, which made playback difficult on some leaves. During a parent night held last week, families had an opportunity to try out the pen and add a message of their own. Feedback regarding this tool was extremely positive. Most of our friends think of the livescribe as a “magic pen” and we don’t argue!