Using Smartpens to Support Note-Taking Skills of Students with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

For students with learning disabilities (LD), note taking during lectures and discussions is a difficult task. Many students have difficulties with listening comprehension and written expression, two important skills vital for successful note taking during teacher lectures. Note taking is a cognitively demanding task whereby students must temporarily hold/rehearse incoming verbal lecture information, quickly construct representations into meaningful bits of information that can be recorded, and then transcribe the bits of meaningful information onto paper before the information is lost and before processing any new incoming information. Despite the difficulty of this task, smartpen technology can aid students during note taking by storing verbal lecture information and then syncing it up when students amend their partial notes. This article provides an overview of a smartpen strategy and a guide for teachers to implement this assistive technology in their classroom and improve the note taking of students with LD.

Keywords

learning strategies academic intervention assessment access to general education curriculum learning disabilities technology instruction

Many students experience note taking as a challenging task. Yet for students with learning disabilities (LD), it can be an arduous and frustrating task. This was the case for a student in a ninth grade English language arts (ELA) class. Calvin, who participated in a research study and was taught to use a smartpen (Joyce, 2016), had been identified by his school as having an LD and had always struggled with reading and writing skills during most of his time in school. For him, ELA was not an easy subject, and he found even listening to verbal information, in the form of lectures, was difficult. His teacher recently asked him why he didn’t record important information from the lecture and why his notes were such a mess (e.g., incomplete and disorganized), to which Calvin responded, “I would miss things (from the lecture) and I wouldn’t fully understand them.” He also told his teacher that his notes were in such poor shape, “because I couldn’t remember everything” from the lectures that were presented. In turn, Calvin’s poor notes impacted his quiz and test scores, which ultimately resulted in a poor grade in ELA. For Calvin, note taking was truly a struggle that had implications on his grades for his courses. Fortunately for Calvin, he was subsequently taught how to use a Livescribe smartpen integrated into a note-taking strategy. Over time, he improved his note-taking skills and became more knowledgeable about lecture information in his content-area classes (see Note 1).

For high school students like Calvin, note taking skills are important for learning content in classes and also serve as essential skills for students in college settings, where many of their classes are lecture-based instruction. Robinson (2002) reported that high school teachers employed two primary learning methods of instruction in inclusive content-area class: (a) lecture with note taking and (b) cooperative learning with hands-on activities. Moreover, teachers reported that note taking was important for all students, regardless of disabilities, to be engaged in the lectures through note taking (Boyle, Forchelli, & Cariss, 2015). Finally, in postsecondary settings, 98% of college students reported using note-taking skills in their classes to learn course content (Brobst, 1996). Because lectures represent the dominant form of conveying content information to students, note-taking skills represent a critical method of acquiring content knowledge.

Despite its importance, note taking during lectures or discussions can be a daunting activity for students with LD like Calvin. During lectures, students must listen and process information, discern important from less critical information, and paraphrase the information so that it makes sense when written in notes, all the while the teacher is presenting the next lecture point (Boyle, Rosen, & Forchelli, 2016). According to Piolat, Olive, and Kellogg (2005), these multiple cognitive processes must be coordinated in rapid succession in order for note taking to be successful. Unfortunately, note taking during lectures is a temporal process, whereby information that is not recorded in notes is lost forever, compounding the difficulty for students with LD, particularly those with slow processing or writing skills. Despite these difficulties, smartpen technology, along with an appropriate note-taking strategy, offers promise for students with this difficult task.

Smartpens: Modern Technology Meets Traditional Note Taking

The advent of the smartpen allows students to combine recording a lecture while actually recording written notes while using one device. Smartpens, such as the digital pen manufactured by Livescribe, function like a traditional pen so students can record written notes, but also digitally record the verbal portion of the lecture at the same time. However, unlike traditional note, students need to record notes on specially designed dot paper. When used with dot paper, a smartpen works by recording where on the page information is being recorded in relation to a set of x, y coordinates using the nearly invisible dot codes printed on the page. This tells the smartpen precisely where the pen tip is on any given page and syncs the coordinate pairs with the audio recording (Livescribe, n.d.-a). For example, during note taking, if a student was able to record a vocabulary term (e.g., “a metaphor is”) on the dot paper, after the lecture ends, the student puts the pen tip on the vocabulary term and the precise audio portion of the lecture will be played (e.g., “a metaphor is a comparison of two unlike things, without using like or as”), providing the student with the opportunity to amend his or her notes by adding to or correcting the information. In fact, students with LD have reported that writing fast enough to keep up with the lecture is one of the biggest challenges they face when taking notes in classes (Boyle et al., 2015). Hence, given that smartpens can sync lecture information with partial or missing lecture points, they appear to be ideal for helping students compensate for their slow writing and processing speed by allowing them to record partial notes and then amend them later (Ok & Rao, 2017; Patti & Garland, 2015).

In a recent study, researchers observed significant ease of use with the 2GB Echo Smartpen among students with LD (Boyle & Joyce, in press). For example, for all students who participated in the study, they did not experience any issues with recording the information from the teacher, despite the distance (e.g., 30 feet) from the student to the teacher who was presenting information. In a classroom that can seat up to 30 students, the teacher was able to provide verbal information in an even tone and the students were able to clearly relisten to the teacher’s lecture through the playback function on the smartpen, even while the teacher moved around the classroom during the lecture presentation. In addition, students easily recorded notes on the specialty dot paper required for the use of the pen. While the dot paper is available in traditional spiral notebooks and smaller notebooks from the company, students can also print the specialty dot paper at home or at school using a color printer for free (i.e., see Livescribe website (www.livescribe.com); Livescribe, n.d.-b).

Besides the 2GB Echo Smartpen, which costs approximately $150, there are a variety of other smartpens available to teachers and students. The majority of smartpens currently on the market have similar technology, including the Neo Smartpen N2 by Neo Smartpen. This pen uses Bluetooth technology to connect to an app on a cell phone or computer with similar functions to the Livescribe pen for recording, including using special dot paper to record the data (Neo Smartpen, n.d.). The Neo Smartpen N2 costs $169 and comes with a pocket notebook. Another smartpen on the market is created by the Moleskine company called Smart Writing System with the Ellipse pen. This smartpen also uses similar technology with a micro camera attached at the base of the pen that records on specialty dot paper. The Smart Writing System Ellipse set costs $199, which includes the “Ellipse smartpen and a large ruled paper table with special Ncoded paper” (Moleskine, n.d.). One option that records the data with different technology is the Ebeam smartpen by Luida, which allows the user to record on any surface and connects a stylus-type pen to an app on a smartphone or computer by using a moveable digital recorder placed at the top of the page to record pen strokes. According to the Luida website, this smartpen is currently in the prototype stage and is estimated to begin selling for $85 for early purchasers (Luidia, n.d.) (see Note 2).

An early study to examine the use of smartpens for note taking was conducted by Belson, Hartmann, and Sherman (2013). This study found that high school students with LD could effectively use smartpens to record lecture content (e.g., via content from PowerPoint slides) in their reading strategies course. These researchers found that students improved from pretreatment to posttreatment on the quality (e.g., ability to summarize the topic succinctly, but with appropriate depth) of their notes. This analysis was done by comparing two or three samples of notes prior to the use of the pen with notes that produced by students who used the smartpen. While this quasi-experimental pre-post design study did show promise, other researchers examined the effects of the smartpens using more rigorous experimental group designs (Boyle & Joyce, in press; Joyce, 2016).

Effective Note-Taking Skills Needed for Students

Whether using a smartpen or traditional pen and paper, several note taking studies (Boyle et al., 2015; Boyle & Rivera, 2012; Kobayashi, 2005, 2006) have reported specific skills that are needed for recording high-quality lecture notes that include (a) recognizing and discriminating teacher cues, (b) recording important vocabulary, and (c) reviewing and amending notes.

Recognizing teacher cues will allow students to capture and record more important lecture points in their notes. Students often report that they aren’t sure what is important to record in notes (Boyle et al., 2015). However, helping students recognize common types of teacher cues, such as emphasis cues or organizational cues, enables them to record more important information in their notes (Boyle, 2010a). Teachers use importance or emphasis cues when alerting students to critical information that they want students to record in their notes. For example, a science teacher might use an emphasis cue (e.g., “You should remember that . . .”) immediately preceding a prominent point (e.g., “Toads do not have teeth, so they do not chew their food, instead swallow it whole”) to call attention to its importance. A second type of cued point, an organizational cue (e.g., “There are six adaptation strategies used by toads during winter to survive”), helps students by providing a framework for organizing certain aspects of content and assists students in discerning important from less important verbal information (Boyle, 2010a; Titsworth, 2001). Finally, teachers use other cues to make sure that students record critical content in their notes. Other cues include the teacher writing something on the board or written words and phrases from electronic slides (e.g., PowerPoint slides, Prezi) that teachers use to write information on the board for students. Therefore, cues are one of the aspects of an implementation strategy (i.e., TARGET) that teachers should present when providing information to students in a lecture format.

A second important skill for students is to recognize and record vocabulary in notes. The average secondary student is exposed to 1,000 to 2,900 vocabulary words per year in content area classes (e.g., science classes; Grove, 1995). Vocabulary is an essential element involved in comprehending concepts in content area classes and influences both language and broader academic achievement (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002). Moreover, Boyle and Forchelli (2014) found that vocabulary in notes has been positive moderately correlated (i.e., .62) with lecture comprehension. Instructing students to recognize key vocabulary terms presented in lectures is another aspect included in the TARGET strategy (description follows).

The final skill of effective note taking is reviewing or revising notes at the end of the lecture. Reviewing and revising notes allows for another opportunity for students to learn about the content, as well as repair partial notes (e.g., adding the definition to vocabulary that are missing their definitions) so that students will have a set of complete notes. Several studies (Boyle, 2010b; Kobayashi, 2006; Luo, Kiewra, & Samuelson, 2016) have shown the importance or added benefit of having students review and/or revise their notes. It is believed that revision might have a retrieval practice effect (Karpicke & Roediger, 2007) on learning, whereby it (a) improves efficient storage or restorage of content, (b) improves the retrieval of information by elaborating on and repairing partial lecture points, and (c) allows students to make holistic connections between lecture points (Boyle et al., 2016; Luo et al., 2016). Although often overlooked by students, reviewing and revising notes serves as a useful step in the note-taking process. By using the smartpen, students are able to review their notes by relistening to a teacher lecture and reviewing and amending their notes. In order to address these areas of identified need in note taking, the TARGET strategy was developed specifically for use with the Livescribe Echo smartpen, which focuses on providing students with direct instruction in identifying cued lecture points and effectively using the assistive technology to record notes (Boyle & Joyce, in press).

Smartpen Strategy

Strategies that embed how to use technology with effective instructional components show promise to help students become successful users of new technology. For example, the InSPECT strategy (McNaughton, Hughes, & Ofiesh, 1997) was taught to students with LD to help them successfully use the spell checker in word processing programs as they successfully proofread written essays. Likewise, the EDIT strategy taught secondary students with developmental disabilities to successfully proofread written essays (Woods-Groves et al., 2015). Both of these strategies integrated actual steps of using the technology (e.g., how to use the spell check to find the suggested spelling of words) with strategies for proofreading (e.g., read for subject-verb agreement, check for proper punctuation).

Using these models of technology integration, the TARGET strategy was developed to teach students how to record notes using smartpens. The strategy was developed to help students to remember the steps needed to use the smartpen as well as components of effective note taking (Boyle & Joyce, in press). The first letter of the acronym TARGET was linked to notes by telling students to focus on key information when note taking using a smartpen.

In the first step, T¹, students were instructed to Tap on the record button to begin recording the lecture.

In the next step, A—Activate—students write instructed to write their name, date, and topic of the notes on the top of the page. This step was important so that if asked, students can go back and find their notes by topic or date. Students were also instructed to write on every other line so that there was room in notes for writing additional information during the amend (T²) step.

In the R step—Record—students were instructed to record important lecture points. More specifically, students were told not to record every word the teacher spoke, but listen for and record three different types of cued lecture points: (a) importance cues, (b) organizational cues, and (c) other cues.

Next, students were also instructed to use the G step to Grab vocabulary words by writing any vocabulary word with its definition.

Once the lecture was over, students were instructed to the E step, End their notes by tapping the stop button and changing the pen-tip color from black to red.

Finally, they would use the, T² step, to Touch up their notes by tapping on any word or cued lecture point and fill in the missing information in red ink.

Red ink was used so that researchers could see and count any notes that were amended. This strategy requires teachers to use direct instruction methods to model the strategy and use of the smartpen. Teachers should also use guided practice with feedback to help students understand how to initially use the smartpen strategy. Furthermore, this strategy includes an acclimation phase for students whereby students practiced or became acclimated to using the smartpen strategy during several authentic class sessions. Through using it with live lectures, students can become fluent smartpen users.

Specific Training Procedures for Smartpens

Students should be taught to use the TARGET strategy during a 50- to 60-minute training session. During this session, teachers provide a brief description of a smartpen, model the TARGET strategy, and guide students through practice portions of a video or simulated lecture, while providing feedback for using the strategy steps correctly.

At the start of this session, teachers should describe the strategy to students by telling them that they will be using the strategy to learn how to record notes using the smartpen. Typically, teachers will ask students about some of the problems that they encounter when taking notes (e.g., teacher speaks too fast, not sure what lecture points to record, write too slowly) and how the smartpen strategy can address some of these issues. In addition, teachers should discuss how the TARGET strategy will assist students with some of these problems, and remind students they will need to pay close attention and record as many notes as possible during the lecture. Students should be cognizant that using a smartpen to record verbal information will not replace actually taking written notes during the lecture. In fact, during training, teachers should inform students that typically students who record lots of notes often do well on class tests (Boyle, 2010b).

Next, students should be taught how to turn the smartpen on and off, basic functions of the smartpen (e.g., record, stop, volume), and how the pen actually records notes and syncs up with specific locations on the dot paper. Once students are familiar with the functions of the pen, the teacher should review each strategy step by providing students with a cue card that lists each step of the strategy. When reviewing the strategy step, it is critical that the teacher point out and provide examples of important or cued lecture points. Specifically, students should be taught how to record three different types of cued lecture points: (a) importance cues, (b) organizational cues, and (c) other cues. Typically, the teacher reviews several different examples of each and asks the student to describe whether the example is a cued or noncued lecture point and if cued, what type of cued lecture point. Finally, the teacher should model the use of the smartpen by using the strategy steps with a previously recorded (i.e., digital video of a lecture) or simulated lecture.

Beginning with the Tap step, the teacher taps on the record button to begin recording the lecture and then uses the Activate step to record their name, date, and topic of the notes on the top of the dot paper page. Next the teacher begins writing notes on the dot paper using the R (Record) and G (Grab) steps repeatedly throughout the lecture. In doing so, the teacher uses the Record step to write down important lecture points, specifically by recording the three different types of cued lecture points. Likewise, the teacher models how to Grab vocabulary by recording vocabulary terms and definitions that occur in the lecture. Every 3 to 5 minutes, the teacher stops the lecture and shares with students what was recorded in his/her notes (e.g., illustrating the Record and Grab steps).

After repeating this process a few times to review teacher’s notes, the teacher should then ask students to participate. This begins by students using the Tap and Activate steps and once complete the teacher begins playing the lecture. This portion of the training is meant to engage students in the lecture and have them practice with feedback their use of the TARGET strategy. This would involve periodically stopping to review what students have written in their notes. Once the lecture ends, the teacher should show students how to End their notes by tapping to stop button. The last step, T²—Touch up—is perhaps the most critical step for using smartpens because if students don’t touch up or amend their partial notes, they will miss out on the biggest benefit of the smartpen: its ability to sync up and help students add to their notes (Boyle & Joyce, in press). The teacher may want to change the color of ink in the smartpen after students finish the End step to discriminate which parts students have amended in their notes. Finally, before students begin practicing using the TARGET strategy with actual notes, they should commit the strategy steps to memory to discourage constantly referring back to their TARGET cue card while they are recording notes.

Results of Smartpen Strategy on Note Taking

In a smartpen study that incorporated the TARGET strategy, Boyle and Joyce (in press) found that students who used the smartpen strategy recorded more lecture points, an average of 21.6 total lecture points for experimental students versus an average of 16.4 lecture points for the control group. They also recorded more words in their notes, an average of 188 words for experimental students versus an average of 141 words for the control group. During the T² or Touch up step, students amended their notes by adding an average of 27 new words. In addition, students who used the smartpen and strategy demonstrated an average of 84.7% on lecture assessments, compared to 78.2% scored by those in the control group who used traditional note-taking methods with pen and paper notes.

Calvin’s Experience

Calvin was taught to use the smartpen strategy for recording notes in conjunction with the use of the Livescribe Echo smartpen in his ELA class. On posttreatment notes, Calvin recorded more TWC in his notes, from a pretreatment of 69 words to a posttreatment score of 228 words in notes, representing a 330% increase in notes. He also recorded more vocabulary terms in his notes after the intervention, increasing from no vocabulary words in notes to seven vocabulary terms recorded at posttreatment. Perhaps the biggest improvement was seen in his lecture test score, as he increased his score 25% from pretreatment to posttreatment (e.g., 55% to 80%). When interviewed, Calvin remarked that when using the smartpen “I was definitely more focused because I was getting so much more done.” He said that the smartpen “made it a lot easier because you would record [your notes] and you could go back to however far you wanted to go back” to amend them.

Suggestions for Teachers

Teachers can take several steps to ensure students are using the smartpen strategy accurately and fluently in content-area courses by (a) checking students’ notes with teacher notes to identify potential areas of trouble, (b) facilitating generalization to other content area classes, and (c) using different review and revising procedures (i.e., as students amend their notes). First, teachers should circulate around the classroom to make sure that students are adhering to the first two steps of the TARGET strategy, the first step being T¹ representing the Tap step, as it is essential that students are reminded to have the pen tip tap the “record” box on the specialty dot paper; if this step is not done, the pen will not record the audio from the lecture. In addition, they should be prompted to complete the second step, which is to Activate their notes by writing their name and date at the top of the dot paper for finding their notes at a later time.

Second, teachers should present information that cue key vocabulary words and main ideas. Prior to class, teachers should identify vocabulary terms and specific lecture points they want students to record in their notes. During class, teachers should provide students with these cued lecture points by stating the information at a slower pace or pausing and while providing a verbal cue (e.g., this is important to remember) that indicates the information is pertinent for students to record in their notes. In addition, teachers can support students with LD by writing vocabulary terms on the board. This will be valuable for students with LD who are poor at spelling, struggle with processing verbal information, or need more key information presented in written form. Students should also receive direct instruction in identifying verbally cued information by recognizing these cues in a sample cueing exercises (e.g., it is important to remember that, you should note, one vocabulary word to recognize is . . .).

Third, teachers should present information to students in an organized manner. Presenting information in an organized manner will help students at recording it in a similar fashion in their notes. Moreover, teachers can aid students’ note taking by interjecting pauses throughout a lecture. This will be useful to students with LD who have working memory issues by allowing them more time to record the cued lecture points and vocabulary in the Record and Grab steps. Pauses naturally slow down the presentation for students to record notes and often cue students to record the information being said with the lecture.

Fourth, teachers should encourage students to use the smartpen at home and assign homework assignments that require students to use the T², Touch up step. With this step, students can relisten to key parts of the lecture by tapping their pen tip on the cued lecture points in their notes and help them amend their notes by adding additional information that they may have missed in the class. By encouraging students to review their notes at home, they are also provided with the benefit of having an untimed setting to amend their notes.

Fifth, it is recommended that teachers number the smartpens and notebooks with the specialty dot paper so that they are easily identifiable. Students should be assigned to a specific pen and notebook, so that they are able to review their previous notes. For example, if students pick up a pen that doesn’t match their notebook, the pen would not be able to tap on the notes from the previous lecture because it was not recorded on that pen. Therefore, it is imperative that students keep their materials consistent throughout their note taking process, and a numbering system is an efficient way to address this need.

To determine which students need note taking instruction with smartpens, teachers should examine samples of students’ previous notes for completeness (Boyle, 2012). Teachers should examine these notes by looking at different components such as (a) number of cued lecture points, (b) vocabulary, (c) total lecture points, (d) drawing and illustrations, as well as (e) how organized the lecture content is in their notes. Like other academic areas, it is important to identify specific skill deficits associated with students’ note taking. Once deficits are identified, teachers may want to review note-taking research (see Boyle, 2012; van der Meer, 2012) to see how other research-based methods were used to address specific note-taking skill deficits.

Once smartpen strategies are taught, teachers need to help students generalize the strategy to new situations (e.g., new teachers, new lecture content). In terms of using the smartpen in new classes, because teachers use different cues to help ensure that important lecture content is found in students’ notes, students should be taught to recognize each teacher’s specific cues used during classroom instruction. For example, one teacher might use an explicit cue, “In your notes, be sure to record that a simile is different from a metaphor,” whereas other teachers might use subtler cues such as, “remember that a simile is different from a metaphor.” Hence, teachers should prepare students by reviewing the different kinds of cues (e.g., importance, organizing, and other cues) that may be presented during lectures from different teachers. At the same time, it would be useful to ask teachers to use emphasis or importance cues when they want to be sure that students record specific content in their classes.

To assist students at processing information deeper and to help with clarification of lecture information, teachers should also try several revising and reviewing procedures to see what works best for the class. For example, Luo et al. (2016) discussed revising notes by incorporating 3-minute pauses in lectures, whereby students can periodically revise their notes, as well as use partners during the revising process. Their findings indicated that using pauses during the lecture (for revising) had a modest positive effect on notes and achievement over revising after the lecture. Likewise, a modest effect was also found when students revised with a partner rather than when revising alone.

Cautions Using Smartpens in the Classroom

There are several issues that teachers might encounter while using smartpens in the classroom (Boyle & Joyce, in press; Joyce, 2016). First, with a large number of smartpens in a classroom and up to half of the class using the smartpens at any given time, one key issue is keeping the devices fully charged. Smartpens come with a power cord that could be connected to either a USB connection or outlet to charge, and are required to be charged after 6 hours of use. A potential solution is to require students to charge their smartpens at home as part of a homework assignment. Another option is to permit students to charge their smartpens in the classroom before or after class, or with student computers or laptops that have access to a USB port.

Another concern is that students lose the interchangeable pen tips that are designed to fit in the smartpen. These pen tips come in different color options including black, blue, and red. A potential solution is for the teacher to be prepared with backup pen tips for students. It is also recommended that students record their notes in a black or blue pen tip color, and then amend their notes in a red pen tip color. This enables students to easily differentiate between the notes that they recorded during the lecture and what they added after listening to the information during the amend step. Also, some students simply may lose their notebooks. One of the useful aspects of a smartpen is its connectivity to a computer so that teachers and students can download all of the notes into a digital format. This allows the user to save and reprint note pages as needed, as well as relisten to the lecture and click on specific key words in the notes to hear what was being presented at the moment that particular word was written.

Finally, the amount of time that students are provided to amend their notes in class by using the T², Touch up step could potentially impact the amount of notes amended. When students in a research study by Boyle and Joyce (in press) were instructed to complete the T² step, they were allotted only 3 minutes of time in class to amend their notes. It is recommended that teachers provide their students with a structured amount of time to amend their notes with a suggested minimum of 7 to 10 minutes. A key aspect of students amending their notes is being able to plug in their smartpen to a headset. Since each smartpen is equipped with an audio jack, students in the study were provided with a headset to plug into their smartpen and limit distractions to other students while playing back the lecture.

Conclusion

Learning verbally presented information via lectures or discussions relies heavily on listening and note taking skills to efficiently comprehend and retain oral information. If not recorded or captured, lecture information may be lost forever. Student performance in content area classrooms is particularly dependent upon being able to capture information from lectures and storing it as a permanent product in the form of high-quality notes. Good note-taking skills are encompassed by multiple skill sets which can be utilized simultaneously. A student must have the ability to accurately record and organize notes, self-regulate to monitor the use of note-taking strategies, and revisit notes to amend any misheard or inaccurate information. Students with LD are at a distinct disadvantage for accessing information via lectures because of the need to simultaneously access and utilize cognitive and motor skills. Despite this difficulty, the use of smartpen technology can help students compensate for poor notes as long as they take advantage of the amending step. Finally, like other areas of the untaught curriculum (e.g., test-taking and study skills), note-taking skills represent one hidden skill area that is often overlooked by teachers, but in the end, is a critical skill for all secondary students to learn, especially students with LD.

Footnotes

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

ORCID iD

Joseph R. Boyle

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