Integrating Livescribe Pencasts with Moodle

Tonight, I was teaching my graduate course and we covered different strategies that can be employed for students note taking. We spoke about outlining, mind mapping, and giving students partially filled in materials to help them with note taking skills. This lead me into a demonstration of marrying the Cornell Note Taking Method with the Livescribe Smartpen. I divided the page in my Livescribe notebook into the necessary columns and explained to my students how this could be used in the classroom to help students record the main ideas of the lecture. With the Livescribe Pulse pen I was able to demonstrate how a student could easily review the material that was recorded and how teachers could use the pen to embed the notes in a Learning Management System. At the college we are presently using Moodle as our Learning Management System and wanted to show my students how we could deliver the notes on the web using the Livescribe technology.

To get started I had my student take some short notes on the page and I sent the page to My Livescribe account. Once the page was successfully uploaded to my Livescribe account I made it public and clicked on the option to copy the Embed Code. Once I copied the Embed Code I went back to Moodle and using the Create A Web Page option - pasted the embed code and voila the page could now be played within my Moodle course for all of my students to see and listen to. Using this technique it is possible to embed Livescribe notes to wiki's as well as blogs. Livescribe makes sharing your notes a cinch and if you choose to you can view your notes on an iPhone or iPad using the Pencast app. So give these techniques a try and let me know how they work for you. Your students will be glad you did.

AT Class p. 1
brought to you by Livescribe

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Posting to Your Blog from Google Docs

The more I explore Google Docs the more I find hidden features that continue to make things that much easier to do. Today I was looking at the Share tab and learned that it is possible to post your Google document directly to your blog by first selecting Publish as web page... After you have selected that option you will then be able to post your Google document to your blog. You may need to configure Google Docs and supply it with your blog address and password. You can even test the connection to see if it will work. As a test I am going to post this to my Blogger account from Google Docs. Let's see what happens.

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No Limits To Learning

It came as a real surprise to me, when I read one of the comments posted today on my blog; to find one of my former students from Pendleton, OR write a post about me in his blog. About 3 years ago, I taught an Introduction to Assistive Technology class for Lesley University and had a chance to speak with Lon over some lunch. We chatted about what he was presently doing and I remarked that once the district learned that he had knowledge of assistive technology and that he was working toward his Master's degree that they would put him into a leadership position. Sure enough this is what happened and Lon is overseeing a large region providing assistive technology services to students. Lon is passionate about the work that he is doing and is blogging about it at No Limits To Learning. It is always exciting to hear from your students that they are doing great things! If you have the chance you can read his post by clicking here.

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A Reader's Comment

I wanted to share with you an email that I just received from Roberta today which inspires me to continue the work that I do on the blog. Roberta lives in Italy and has been an avid mindmapper in all realms of her life. I hope you enjoy this glimpse into how she is using mind maps and take the time to visit her blog. It is exciting to know that mind mappers all over the world are enjoying my blog. Enjoy Brian

PS; If anyone else is interested in sharing their mind mapping experiences and how they are using it in their personal, business or professional life just shoot me an email.

hi brian s. friedlander

my name is roberta
and i live in rome, italy

i love mindmaps !

i don't speak english very well
but i try to read your fantastic blog

this is my life map n.0
and this is my story

One day i got on a special train and started a research trip. During this trip i have discovered that my thoughts must not necessarily run straight like a train, but they can simply follow their natural course according to a radial structure similar to the one of the brain neurons. Now, thanks to the mind maps, i look at what happens around me from different points of view: not only the logic, rational one, but also the emotional and creative one i can think and write in a different way, effective and amusing:i can turn the sheet of paper from vertical to horizontal, pass from the linear to the radial writing, use all the colours i want free my creativity. Since 2004 i have been using the mind maps daily to organize my work: plan new processes with my colleagues, synthesize books and above all take notes during the meetings, lectures, brainstorming sessions. Thanks to the technique of the mind maps i have begun to slow down the train of my thoughts: looking at the landscape outside my window discovering myself like this!

if you want read all my story
Story of a thought which from linear became radial again
http://www.complexlab.com/Members/rbuzz/articoli/pensiero%20radiale

this is my blog
http://mappementaliblog.blogspot.com

today I have written this post
http://mappementaliblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/mind-map-library.html

i hope that you want to dedicate a post to my story

thank you
ciao
roberta

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