(Photo courtesy of
PhotoDu.de)
During my trip to Orlando last month for the ATIA convention on Disabilities and Emerging Technology I learned quite a bit about new products and enhancements to old ones. But what stuck out in my mind were some of the new uses that people had come up with by combining existing products with newer ones.
The one product that seems to be getting the most buzz lately is the Pulse Pen by Livescribe. It’s only been out for a couple of months and already everyone is talking about it.
The basic premise behind the
Pulse Pen is that it records while you write. You can go back later and touch the pen to anything you have written to hear a playback of what was recorded at the exact time you wrote a note. The obvious benefits to college students and people with
ADHD or dyslexia are there but lawyers and HOAs have also picked up on the
Livescribe as a great way to keep accurate minutes and easy transcription.
I had the opportunity this week to speak to Dan Herlihy of
Connective Technology Solutions about some of the ideas he presented at the ATIA educational sessions for using the Pulse Pen with technology already in place in most homes and schools that cater to persons with disabilities. By thinking outside the box he’s figured out how to use the Pulse Pen to create talking books, interactive worksheets for preschool, early learning curriculum and customized picture communicators!
We’ve outlined a few specific examples for you below and if this sparks any other ideas in your classroom or home, we’d love to hear about them!
Make a Talking Book
Start by printing a booklet on Livescribe Dot Paper. Then, while recording, read the text that you want the child to hear out loud while drawing an ‘X’ or other indicator that the student can later touch on to cue the recorded text to playback.
Similarly you can even draw an x under each word of a sentence as you say them to give word by word assistance to someone who may only need a word or two here and there and not the entire sentence. You can also experiment with different character voices or animal sounds to make the stories really come to life!
Create Interactive Worksheets for Early Learning
The possibilities here are endless. Imagine a preschooler just learning his letters for the first time. On his worksheet, next to each letter is a picture of an item that begins with that letter. By pressing the pen to the ‘X’ next to each letter he can hear his teacher’s voice making the sound of that letter and sounding out the name of the corresponding item.
Or use the pen to trace the letters while you sound them out so that when the child goes back later and traces the same letter he can hear that letter’s sound as he is tracing it. I suggest using the stylus insert for the pen instead of the ink insert so that he doesn’t mark up the worksheet and it can be used again and again by other students.
Create Your Own Low-Cost Picture Communicator
This idea is my personal favorite by far. You can just use the Boardmaker, Overboard, or GoTalk Overlay Software to print your custom picture grid on Dot Paper, and again simply record the word or sound you want the user to hear while you draw the ‘X’ or indicator of your choice. One of the best things about this is that the Pulse Pen has hours of recording time and memory so you can create and use countless overlays all at the same time without changing levels or replacing the overlay in between subjects or circumstances.
Picture it - You have one overlay on the refrigerator that contains all the typical words and sayings needed in the kitchen and another customized overlay in the bathroom with words and cues for personal hygiene and all you need wherever you go is the Pulse Pen. Forget about carrying a bulky
AAC communicator around with your or strategically placing voice activated switches around the school or in your home. You can literally have a custom picture communicator in every room and all of them active without changing a thing!
And combining technologies obviously doesn't end with the Pulse Pen. We'd love to know what other items you are combining or using in unconventional ways. Please email or leave a comment to let us know what YOU do with your AT!
