Your back to school shopping list likely consists of the typical supplies: pens, notebooks, folders, whiteout, etc. No matter how proficient you are at taking notes, it was my experience that it’s hard to keep up with all of the note taking in class. Lucky for you, there is a solution – Livescribe smartpens, available at many campus bookstores.
I’m sure there are many pens or devices out there that allow you to hand-write your own notes while simultaneously recording the audio around you. One of the many cool functions of the Echo smartpen is that it then allows you to go back to your hand-written notes and playback the exact audio that was recorded when the notes were written, simply by pressing on the words on your paper! So if you miss a part of a lecture, you can easily fill in your notes at a later date with the recording. You can also import your notes into your computer and then search them by topic or keyword.
I don’t believe I am technically savvy enough to convey all the amazing features this pen has to offer, but these videos are very helpful for those of you who need more information. The only question I am left with is this: Why did I not know about these pens when I was in school?
Additional tutorials are available here.
