Using a Digital Pen to Support Secondary Students With Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Secondary students with learning disabilities (LD) can benefit from using assistive and instructional technologies to support content and skill acquisition. Digital pens have features that can be beneficial for students who struggle with comprehension, note taking, and organization. Livescribe pens, in particular, provide a variety features that teachers and students can use as a support for note taking, content review and test preparation, formative assessment, and testing accommodations and as a math calculator for secondary students with LD. This article describes several ways that teachers can integrate digital pens to support secondary students with LD and discusses potential benefits and challenges regarding the use of these pens.

Keywords

digital pen technology secondary learning disabilities

Chris is a high school freshman assessed with learning disabilities (LD) who has difficulties with literacy and mathematics (see Note 1). He has weak decoding skills and struggles with comprehension of grade-level texts. He requires more time to read a text than his peers do and often does not finish reading texts assigned in class. He feels overwhelmed when asked to read long passages from a textbook. He has a history of struggling with various aspects of the writing process, including the mechanics or writing and drafting text. As a result, he is reluctant to work on writing tasks during class. He also struggles in his mathematics class with tasks that include conceptual knowledge, computation, and solving word problems.

After entering high school, he finds himself even more frustrated by the reading and writing tasks required of him. His teachers often assign chapters in textbooks for homework and review course content in lecture format. Due to his literacy-related challenges and weak organizational skills, Chris struggles with taking notes during the classes. He has difficulty reviewing what he learned during class, which results in getting poor grades on his assignments and tests. In math class, he often finds himself unable to follow the teacher’s presentation of new concepts and struggles with solving problems without fully understanding the foundations of the mathematical skills. He is far behind other students in most of his classes and constantly struggles with catching up. He feels overwhelmed and has low confidence in his abilities.

Chris’s challenges are characteristic of many high school students with LD. Students with LD are often placed in inclusive classroom settings and provided with some supports for their disability, yet continue to struggle to keep up with increasingly demanding curriculum. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004) mandated the placement of students in a least restrictive setting where they are provided with adequate supports to access the general curriculum, yet secondary-level students with LD often experience difficulties with academic skills such as reading (Edmonds et al., 2009; Vellutino, Fletcher, Snowling, & Scanlon, 2004), writing (Gillespie & Graham, 2014; Graham & Harris, 2003), and mathematics (Geary, 2010, 2011). The wide achievement gap between students with LD and their peers without disabilities becomes wider as they get older (Cortiella, 2011). Secondary students with LD tend to receive lower grades and fail courses more frequently than their peers without disabilities (Cortiella & Horowitz, 2014). In addition, students with LD tend to drop out of school at a higher rate compared to their peers without disabilities (Cortiella, 2011). It is essential to provide appropriate instructional supports for secondary students with LD to ensure that they succeed in school and gain confidence in their ability to learn independently.

Digital Pens

Instructional and assistive technologies can play an essential part in providing learning supports to students with LD (Dell, Newton, & Petroff, 2012). For secondary students, portable technology-based supports can be especially useful because they are consistent with tools that teenagers regularly have on hand and use, such as smartphones and music players. Digital pens look very much like a regular pen, but include some powerful features that can support learning (e.g., literacy, math, organizational skills) of students with LD. Digital pens have multimodal features that allow students to record information in multiple modes (auditory and written) and to replay/review this information as needed. Because they look like regular pens, these devices provide a discrete digital tool that students can use without the stigma of being different or using a special tool. There are various types of digital pens available on the market (see Table 1) as described below.

Table 1.

Summary of Digital Pens.

Name	Type of Pen	Publisher	Features
WizCom Tech Reading Pen	Reading pen	www.wizcomtech.com	• Scan single words or sentences • Display and read out loud definition and synonyms • Translation • Exam mode (turn off dictionary, use only text-to-speech function)
Ectaco C-Pen	OCR pen	www.ectaco.com/cpen-30	• Digitize scanned texts • Recognize foreign languages • Be able to use with text-to-speech or translation software programs
IRISPen		www.irislink.com
WorldPenScan		www.penpowerinc.com
Anybook Readers	Anybook reader pen	www.anybookreader.com	• Record voice on reusable stickers• Change any printed materials to interactive read-aloud materials
Livescribe pens	Smart pen	www.livescribe.com	• Recognize handwriting• Record audio during taking notes• Digitize and replay notes• Record voice using sound stickers
FLY Fusion Pen	Smart pen	www.leapfrog.com	• Recognize handwriting• Digitize handwritten notes

Reading Pens

Reading pens are designed to help struggling readers to improve their reading skills. Using these pens, students can scan single words or full lines of text and play back an audio version of the text. The pen provides definitions and synonyms of the scanned texts on its LCD screen and reads them aloud as well and includes a translation function. The features of the reading pens could provide supports for reading fluency and comprehension. Wearing headphones, students can use the pen to read any printed reading materials (e.g., worksheets, textbooks, handouts) during class independently. Teachers can lock the dictionary function of the pen, so that students can use only the text-to-speech function of the pen while taking a test.

Optical Character Recognition

Optical character recognition pens, such as Ectaco C-Pen, IRISPen, and PenPower WorldPenScan, are portable pen-size scanners. Using these pens, students can scan the text of any printed materials. Scanned texts can be transferred over to the computer and can be opened in applications (e.g., word processors, email) immediately, allowing students to listen to the scanned texts using text-to-speech or translation software programs. The latest version of the WorldPenScan pen can be connected to mobile devices wirelessly via Bluetooth. Students with LD can use the pen independently for reading class materials or reading assigned text for homework.

Anybook Readers

Anybook Readers, developed by Franklin Electronic Publishers, are designed for helping struggling readers access texts. Using the special stickers that come with the pen, teachers can add auditory notes to a book. They can place the sticker near a word, tap it, and record their voice. When students touch the sticker with the pen, it replays the recorded audio. The pen allows up to 60 hours of recording and the stickers are reusable. Teachers can easily place the stickers on books, worksheets, or tests, so that students can read the texts independently. This transforms books into interactive audio books and helps teachers create independent activities (e.g., audio vocabulary flash cards, read-aloud phonics worksheet) for struggling readers. Students can also record their voice while reading the books, to replay themselves reading fluently and to self-evaluate as they read.

Smart Pens

Smart pens such as Livescribe pens (e.g., Pulse, Echo) and the FLY Fusion Pentop computer can also be used to support learning of students with LD. These pens can be used for digital note taking. These devices have a camera at the tip to capture students’ handwriting on specially designed paper. For example, the Livescribe pen works with a companion notebook that is bundled with the pen or can be purchased separately. The pens digitize handwritten text on the page, so students can save and share the digitized note easily. Livescribe pens simultaneously capture audio and synchronize it to the handwritten text. Students can tap their written note with the pen to review the corresponding audio recording. The pens also have other features such as a calculator, translator, and MP3 player.

Digital pens have shown positive effects for supporting learning of students with LD. For example, Johnson (2008) and Higgins and Raskind (2005) found that reading pens helped students with reading difficulties improve reading accuracy and comprehension. The built-in mathematics software in the FLY Fusion Pen also was helpful for middle school students with disabilities to improve multiplication computation skills (Bouck, Bassette, Taber-Doughty, & Flanagan, 2009). Digital pens are also associated with increased engagement of students with LD (Doughty, Bouck, Bassette, Szwed, & Flanagan, 2013) and students reported positive perceptions toward using the pens (Bouck et al., 2009; Doughty et al., 2013; Johnson, 2008). Schmitt, McCallum, Hennessey, Lovelace, and Hawkins (2012) reported that students who have greater reading difficulties gain more benefits from the digital pen accommodation. The pens are affordable, portable, and easy to use and can serve as effective supplementary learning tools (e.g., note taking, homework help) for a variety of subjects (Johnson, 2008; Shaffer & Schwebach, 2015). Based on the potential efficacy of digital pens for students with LD, this article presents two examples of ways in which Livescribe pens, in particular, can be used in the classroom to support the needs of secondary students with LD, along with a description of the benefits and challenges associated with the use of these pens in the classroom.

Pens for Secondary Students

The Livescribe pens have a variety of functions that can provide assistive learning supports for secondary students with LD. The pens can be used to (a) support note taking during classes, (b) create pencasts as supplementary learning tools, (c) provide multimodal tools for student assessment, (d) create read-aloud materials, and (e) support math computation. Two classroom scenarios detail how teachers and students use these features.

Case 1: English Language Arts Class

Mr. Brown, Chris’s ELA teacher, taught a unit on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to his ninth-grade students. The primary objective for the first lesson in the unit was “the student can identify key elements of the story including characters, setting, conflict and resolution.” Students had varied opportunities to read the play in class, sometimes as a whole group and sometimes independently. Mr. Brown integrated short lectures and whole-class discussions to provide context and guidance as they read the play together. To guide students to identify key elements in the story, he provided a story map that they had to fill out independently. At the end of the week, to assess students’ mastery of the objectives for the lesson, he created a short quiz that included multiple-choice and open-ended short essay questions.

Mr. Brown knew that Chris, as well as a few other students with LD, would benefit from supports as they went through the unit. To determine what supports to provide, he identified the specific tasks that students would be doing during these lessons: (a) reading the play, (b) completing the story map, (c) taking notes during the lectures and discussions, and (d) taking the quiz. He used various functions of the pens to integrate supports for their learning as students completed various tasks in this unit.

Creating read-aloud materials

Research indicates that students with LD typically experience difficulties with comprehension of reading materials (e.g., textbooks, worksheets) used during class due to their weak reading skills (Edmonds et al., 2009). To compensate for their difficulties, they can benefit from text-to-speech accommodations (Moorman, Boon, Keller-Bell, Stagliano, & Jeffs, 2010). One way in which teachers can create quick and easy text-to-speech options is to use Livescribe sound stickers.

To create customized sound stickers, the materials needed are the pen and sound stickers. Using the reusable sound stickers, specially designed for these digital pens, teachers can easily record their voice on each sticker and students simply tap on the sticker with the pen to play the audio back. With sound stickers, teachers can make interactive audio textbooks, handouts, flash cards, and work sheets. The stickers provide a simple scaffold that can allow students with LD to read class materials independently during class. Students can wear headphones to listen to the stickers so as not to distract other students.

Mr. Brown recorded sound stickers for the pages that the students read independently. On the stickers, he recorded step-by-step directions for the story map activity, chunking down the process into a clear set of steps. He placed the stickers on the story map handouts in key areas, to provide students guidance as they worked independently on the activity. Mr. Brown also taught students to read along with the pen as they listened to improve their reading skills. In this way, he provided supports for students to foster their independence and assist them with reading fluency as well as comprehension (Moorman et al., 2010).

Supporting note taking

Research has reported that note taking is an essential skill for students in middle and high schools to succeed in their classes; students can use their notes to improve the understanding of content taught in their classes (Ruby & Ruby, 2014). In addition, having note-taking skills is essential for success in college-level courses (Buttrill, Niizawa, Biemer, Takahashi, & Hearn, 1989). Students with LD may experience difficulties with note taking during classes due to their weak reading, writing, and/or organization skills (Boyle & Forchelli, 2014), and teachers can support their note taking skills through explicit modeling and guidance.

The digital note taking feature of the Livescribe pen is a very useful feature for students with LD. A built-in microphone and infrared camera on the tip of the pen capture everything written in the companion notebook or on loose-leaf sheets of special paper. The pen also records audio while the user is writing and synchronizes the audio to the written text. Students can use this feature to simultaneously take notes and record lectures during class. For students who have difficulties with note taking due to their weak writing and organization skills, the recorded audio can help them to capture key details of the lecture content during the class (Lindstrom, 2007). For students who experience challenges with processing information as they listen in real time or need supports for short term memory and executive function, listening to the audio file later allows them to replay and review what was said. In addition, students can revisit their notes and listen to the audio multiple times as needed. These features can help students review the notes in an efficient way; they can click on specific sections of the notes they want to review rather than listening to the full lecture. The multimodal note-taking features of the Livescribe pen supports students’ comprehension and retention of information, which can help them improve their understanding and acquisition of content (Higgins & Raskind, 1995). Moreover, students can easily save and share digitized notes via email or through online cloud-based services (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox).

Mr. Brown encouraged Chris and the other students with LD to use their Livescribe pen and Livescribe notebook to take notes during lessons in which he gave short lectures about the play. He also encouraged the students to meet with him one-on-one to go over their recorded notes and evaluate which parts of the notes they should highlight as most important. In this way, Mr. Brown was able to guide students in the development of their note-taking skills while they reviewed the notes together and identified essential information. Mr. Brown modeled the process of listening to the audio notes and making decisions about how to edit their handwritten notes. Working with Mr. Brown to practice this skill, the students learned how they could critically evaluate their notes, elaborating on what they had written and correcting errors. He also encouraged students to review their digitized notes as needed, at home and especially before they took their quiz on this unit.

Creating supplementary learning tools

Students with LD often require multiple opportunities to review content or practice skills to master the content or skills taught during classes (Morris & Mather, 2008). The pencast creation feature, unique to the Livescribe pen, can help students have review content taught during their classes as needed. A pencast is a digital and interactive PDF file that captures audio along with written text. Teachers can create pencasts as they teach, by simply pressing a button on the pen to record what they say. As they talk, they can write down key points in a Livescribe notebook. Livescribe software will create a PDF file that contains both the voice recording and written notes. These pencast files can be shared in various formats, for example, via email, uploaded to cloud-based service (e.g., Google Docs), or accessed on mobile devices with pencast player apps (e.g., Livescribe⁺, Evernote). Students can review the teacher’s pencast by clicking on the PDF file and accessing the synchronized audio and written notes. The file is interactive, allowing students to click on specific portions of written text to hear what was being said. This is especially helpful for students who need to review specific portions to process and comprehend information. Materials needed for creating the pencasts included the Livescribe pen and a computer.

While presenting his short lectures and during whole-class discussions, Mr. Brown created pencasts to help students review important content for the test. He uploaded the pencasts onto his class website, so all students including students with LD could easily access the pencast files for exam preparation. The pencasts provided an instructional scaffold for students with LD, by providing a multimodal, guided way to interact with and review content (Johnson, 2008; Shaffer & Schwebach, 2015). This support also increased the opportunity for students to study the content independently and at their own pace. Ultimately, it has the potential to yield higher achievement of students with LD by providing increased opportunities to learn (e.g., extra instructional time; Elliott, 2015).

Multimodal tools for assessment

Students with LD can experience difficulties demonstrating their understanding of concepts on paper-based tests due to their reading and writing difficulties (Dolan, Hall, Banerjee, Chun, & Strangman, 2005; Graham & Harris, 2003). Researchers have reported positive effects of using read-aloud tests on enhancing performance of students with LD (Dolan et al., 2005; Meloy, Deville, & Frisbie, 2002).

For his students with LD, Mr. Brown created a read-aloud version of the quiz using Livescribe pens. Materials included his Livescribe pen, Livescribe paper, a computer, and a printer. Mr. Brown printed out the quiz he had created in his word processing software (e.g., Microsoft Word) on Livescribe paper. Using the Livescribe pen, he recorded himself reading the questions and response options aloud. When students clicked on the particular portion of the test printed on Livescribe paper, they were able to hear the auditory prompt he had recorded. Students used headphones to listen to the audio without disrupting others. Mr. Brown also allowed students to express their knowledge in different formats as part of his assessment. For the open-ended questions on the quiz, he gave students the option of recording their answers orally as they wrote. This provided a multimodal option for students who could more easily express their thoughts orally and reduced the barrier created by written assessments (Dalton, Herbert, & Deysher, 2003).

Case 2: Mathematics Class

Ms. Kay, a ninth-grade math teacher, taught a lesson focused on solving word problems involving inequalities. The objective for the lesson was “students will be able to use information from word problems to write, solve, and graph inequality.” During the class, Ms. Kay presented information through a short lecture first to provide modeling on how to solve inequality word problems. After solving a few problems together as guided practice, students worked independently to solve problems on a worksheet. As a next step, Ms. Kay went over the problems with students. For additional practice, students solved a few more problems for homework to practice the skills they learned in class.

Ms. Kay knew that Chris and a few other students with LD needed support with the computation and the word problems. Ms. Kay identified the tasks within this unit and identified the following ones that would create challenges for her students with LD: (a) processing information from the lecture, (b) computing independently on their worksheets, and (c) completing homework. She used the Livescribe pen to create resources that would help students with reviewing key steps and working independently when they solved problems on their own.

Supporting note taking during classes

These pens capture not only written text, but also drawings (e.g., pictures, diagrams, math symbols). Students can copy images into their notebooks and record what the teacher says about the image, to further enhance their understanding of a topic (Shaffer & Schwebach, 2015). Ms. Kay knew that some students struggled with taking clear notes about the step-by-step process for solving the problem due to their writing difficulties. As a result, they had trouble using their notes when they tried to solve the problems. To address this challenge, Ms. Kay modeled the process of solving problems using her Livescribe pen and notebook instead of a whiteboard. She placed the notebook under a document camera (e.g., Elmo) and projected her notes onto the screen. As she explained and wrote down the steps for problem solving in the notebook, she simultaneously recorded herself on the pen. After class, she uploaded the recorded files to her class website and sent it out by email to students to give them easy access to the files.

Creating read-aloud materials

A lack of understanding of language within math problems (Fuchs et al., 2010) is a key reason that students with LD often have difficulty with solving mathematical word problems. Read-aloud testing accommodations can improve the math performance of students with LD (Elbaum, 2007; Helwig, Rozek-Tedesco, & Tindal, 2002). Aware that the weak reading skills resulted in challenges when solving word problems, Ms. Kay created read-aloud worksheets for her students with LD. She printed out worksheets and recorded with her voice to read aloud the questions and options of the problems. She knew this would reduce challenges related to decoding and comprehending the word problems and help students focus their attention on solving the problems (Helwig et al., 2002).

Supporting math computation

Students with LD experience a variety of difficulties in mathematics (Bryant, Bryant, & Hamill, 2000); more than half of students with LD have mathematics goals on their individualized education program (Lerner, 2003). Students with LD often have difficulties with developing computation fluency, which blocks development of more advance mathematics skills (Geary, 2011). Using calculators can support students with LD to improve their mathematics performance (Crawford, Higgins, & Freeman, 2012). Livescribe pens have a calculator feature. A paper-based calculator is located on the inside of the notebook as well. Students can simply tap numbers and operations on the calculator using the pen, and the computed answer is displayed on a small LCD screen on the pen immediately. The pen can help students with LD compute basic mathematics equations as well as scientific functions. Ms. Kay encouraged her students with LD to use the calculator in their notebook while solving the problems in her class.

Multimodal tools for assessment

Teachers can use a variety of formative assessment methods to evaluate students’ understanding, needs, and progress during a lesson or unit (“Hidden Curriculum,” 2014). Formative assessments (e.g., short quiz, student’s work sample) are the primary method to identify students’ needs and progress, allowing teachers to provide supplementary supports as needed (Wilson, Boyd, Chen, & Jamal, 2011). When Ms. Kay wanted to check students’ understanding of the word problems, she asked them to solve problems as homework using the pencast to review the steps. Using the Livescribe pen and notebook, students solved the problems and provided verbal explanations for their solutions. Students emailed their files to Ms. Kay. By reviewing their files, Ms. Kay was able to identify the steps that were most challenging for students (e.g., use of incorrect strategies, steps, or reasoning) while solving problems, and was able to provide customized support for each student.

Potential Benefits and Challenges

Benefits

As described in the previous section, digital pens have a variety of features that are helpful for supporting students with LD. The pens can serve as an effective tool for helping with note taking, providing supplementary learning supports (e.g., reviewing lessons, preparing for exams), creating read-aloud class materials, creating assessments, and helping with math computations. The pens can help students with LD enhance their learning in various subject areas. They are affordable, portable, and easy-to-use digital devices that can help teachers create more engaging lessons (Johnson, 2008; Shaffer & Schwebach, 2015).

Using the pen also requires minimal extra work for teachers to prepare their lessons. For example, it is easy and takes a short amount of time to create pencasts and read-aloud materials using the pens. In addition, the pens are user-friendly, so minimal training is required for both teachers and students to use the pens. They can use the pens like a traditional pen for note taking during their classes; the pen does not distract the students when implemented. Moreover, Johnson (2008) reported that the use of digital pens was well accepted by students’ peers. For teenagers who are reticent to be singled out, this discrete supportive device can decrease the stigma of using more apparent assistive technology devices in classrooms. Last, for secondary students, learning how to use this pen to support note taking and reviewing content can be an important skill to develop as they continue into postsecondary settings where they will be expected to learn content through lecture-based formats.

Challenges

Today, a variety of technology is available in schools (Allsopp, McHatton, & Cranston-Gingras, 2009), and teachers are expected to integrate technology into instruction (Armstrong, Henson, & Savage, 2009). However, using technology itself does not guarantee positive effects on students’ learning (MacArthur, 2009). Teachers can benefit from learning “how” technology can be integrated effectively for students to use it optimally as part of their instructional strategies (Batorowicz, Missiuna, & Pollock, 2012; Marino, Marino, & Shaw, 2006). Even though digital pens are not particularly complex to use, it cannot be assumed that teachers and students will intuitively know how to best make use of them. Teachers and students can benefit from training on how to use the smart pen to support specific skill areas described in this article. School and district technology specialists or local/state assistive technology staff can provide the training on how to use the tools. Moreover, tutorials for tools can easily be found online (e.g., YouTube videos). Even though the pen has various features that can be beneficial for students with LD, every student is unique and has different needs. Teachers who want to use the pen for their students with LD need to evaluate if the pen could be an effective tool for the students based on students’ characteristics (e.g., needs, abilities, preferences), environment (e.g., where the pen is expected to be used, characteristics of the environment), and tasks (i.e., work required to perform; Zabala, n.d.).

Conclusion

Digital pens are tools that can be used in various ways to provide instructional supports for students with disabilities. Because of their small size and resemblance to regular pens, digital pens can be a discrete and acceptable support for secondary-level students with disabilities who may not appreciate assistive supports that make them stand out from others. They can use the pen to write, just as they would with any other pen, but also avail of the digital features that support essential listening, note-taking, and review skills needed in secondary-level classes. Digital pens also give teachers a relatively easy way to capture and disseminate lectures and to create resources that provide assistive supports for students. While this article highlighted ways in which teachers could use the pens to support students with LD, students without disabilities can also benefit from features of the pen. Digital pens are tools that can be useful for general and special education teachers who are seeking ways to integrate learning supports for students with LD as well as other students.

Footnotes

Authors’ Note

The authors of this article have no affiliation with Livescribe Inc. or its products.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

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