I just purchased a cool new tool from Target in New Tampa. I have an interview coming up for a copy writing project, and a writer friend recommended I get a Livescribe pen (www.livescribe.com) to help me take notes.


Livescibe pen photo by Brenda Wallace and licensed under Creative Commons
Attribution Only. See more of Brenda's photos in her Flicker photostream.

By no means would I claim to be a gadget geek, but I have to say that I'm really excited about the Livescribe. It allows you to take notes on special notebooks made to go with the pen and go back and tap on your notes to hear what was been said when you made those notes.

Cool, huh?

Certainly as a former instructor, I would want students to get permission before recording a lecture -- and in some states -- permission is a legal requirement, but what a cool tool!

It's expensive -- $150 for the 1G model, but as my friend advised -- the 1G holds over 100 hours of recorded information so that may well be enough.

Many times in my business life, I have reviewed notes from a conference call or notes from an interview and tried to recapture what was being said. Livescribe solves that problem.

I have not gotten to take mine out of the box and give it a test drive, but I will do it tonight and tomorrow. As I get some experience using it, I  will write more about Livescribe here. I think it is going to be a tool that is almost ideal for taking lecture notes for students -- at least the ones who go to an actual classroom and hear a teacher lecture. 

Being able to reconnect the notes with the spoken lecture would be particularly helpful in reviewing for exams. If you are a student user of the Livescribe, I would love to hear the pluses and minuses of using it in the classroom. Feel free to comment on this post!

Online, generally speaking, rewind isn't a problem. I hope Livescribe will be something that I can recommend to Tampa English tutoring clients.

The pen can be purchased at Target, but my advice is go right to the Livescribe site, they have a special as of this writing where you can get four notebooks free with the pen and they are offering free shipping. Target would not price match because it was an Internet offer. I really like to shop there, but getting I didn't feel like a valued customer after being told that's just our policy.

It's a shame when a big, normally customer focused business can't empower their people to do the right thing for customers who have made a purchase from them.

If you need an English or history tutor in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel, FL, call Eric at 813.787.8959.