What happens when they don’t choose it?

See Our Backchannel In Action

A couple of days ago, I blogged about a backchanneling activity that I did in the classroom with my Grade 1/2 students. For this activity, I gave students a choice of tools, and they decided how best to use these tools. Students were drawing and writing about what they were learning about frogs as they were watching a video on frogs. One of my tool choices was the Livescribe Pen. I have two of them, and I actually thought that both of them would be in high demand. That’s why I was amazed that every white board in the class was chosen, but only one student picked the Livescribe Pen, and that was after a bit of convincing too. Why did the students not choose this tool?

I thought that it would be an ideal one, as they could draw and write down their ideas while recording the audio too. I would have chosen this tool, but others didn’t, and that bothered me. I have been trying to figure out what led them to the white boards over the pen. Here are my thoughts:

1) Maybe the coloured ink choices helped. Students like to draw in colour, even if they weren’t colouring in their pictures. The whiteboards allowed for this, but the Livescribe Pen was available in black ink only.

2) Maybe the clean white surface helped. I was just reading Zoe Branigan-Pipe’s post on the Livescribe Sticky notes. I wonder if students would have gravitated to the pen to use if they were drawing and writing on little sticky notes instead of a big, bulky book. Possibly the surface appearance and size mattered too. Students can sometimes feel less overwhelmed by a smaller surface, but quickly intimidated by a larger one. Maybe getting a smaller Livescribe Book would have helped too.

3) Maybe they didn’t think that the audio mattered in this case. If the students were just going to draw and write, and the audio was irrelevant, maybe they preferred to photograph their work on a whiteboard versus downloading their work from a Livescribe Pen.

4) Maybe the students felt as though they have lots of opportunities to use the Livescribe Pen, and fewer opportunities to use the whiteboards and markers. Possibly the “newness” of this other tool made it a more popular choice. I wonder if this will still be so when we do future similar activities.

5) Maybe the students saw the Livescribe Pen as more of an audio tool, and this time, they weren’t sharing their thoughts aloud, but drawing and writing them down instead. Maybe I need to spend more time showing the students how the Livescribe Pen can be used for drawing and writing, and not just for its oral language benefit.

What do you think?

My students still love the Livescribe Pen as a learning tool and a sharing tool, but this activity left me wondering why. I’m hoping that you might be able to add to my list of possible answers too.

Aviva