Using SmartPens to Facilitate Project Supervision of Final Year Maths Students

This paper explores the feasibility of using SmartPen technology to support the supervision of final-year students undertaking a research project in the School of Mathematical Sciences in University College Dublin. A case study will be presented evaluating the application of Livescribe SmartPen technology and how it can be adapted for the purpose of project research supervision. The advantages and disadvantages of the SmartPen are also presented. While the benefits of providing student feedback is well documented in the literature this paper will further explore this aspect of the student supervision process. It aims to investigate whether a digital recording (with annotations) of student feedback sessions would support the student learning process and time efficiency of the supervisor. Initial findings to date indicate that SmartPens has the potential to support the student supervisor feedback process however the particular Livescribe product chosen has reliability issues that can impact on the feedback process.