>Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 10:42:11 -0400
>From: joe j lazzaro <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Announcing Virtual Pencil (fwd)
>To: [log in to unmask]
>X-Authentication-warning: shell01.TheWorld.com: lazzaro owned process
>doing -bs
>Original-recipient: rfc822;[log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>Joseph J. Lazzaro
>HTTP://JoeLazzaro.Com
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 07:49:48 -0400
>From: Ted Henter <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Announcing Virtual Pencil
>
>                                 News Release
>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
>Media Contact: Emley Henter, Sales and Marketing
>Henter Math, LLC
>8335 37th Ave. N.
>St. Petersburg, FL 33710
>[log in to unmask], or www.HenterMath.com
>727- 347- 1313
>
>Henter Math is pleased to announce the release of their first product,
>Virtual Pencil, computer software for interactive access to math. It is
>designed for those who are pencil impaired: unable to operate
>a pencil effectively. This might be someone that is blind, visually
>impaired, motor impaired, or learning disabled.  This is not a tutorial,
>but a tool that can be used to interactively solve a math problem. It
>moves to the right spot on the "paper", guided by the user, and inputs
>the answers that the user selects. When used with a screen
>reader the numbers and actions are read outloud, or displayed in
>Braille.
>
>The traditional pencil is a problem for people that are blind, people
>that can't grip or move it, or those that are learning disabled. A
>pencil plays a key part in learning Math, and other equation-solving
>disciplines. Typically a student uses a pencil to "work through" a math
>problem, writing down the intermediate answers and using them to get the
>final answer. But if you can't operate a pencil then you can't write
>down the intermediate answers, which makes it more difficult to get the
>final answer and leaves nothing on the paper to show that you actually
>worked through the problem.  If you are blind the pencil doesn't tell
>you what numbers to add together either.
>
>Company founder Ted Henter says "I was helping my junior high school
>daughter with her homework a few years ago. I could do the math in my
>head, but I could not show her how to do it. I am blind, she is sighted.
>It was a very frustrating experience for both of us. That is when I
>realized that the problem lies with the pencil, or my inability to
>operate it. I received my math education when I was sighted, and skipped
>the frustration that must impact every blind student, their teachers,
>and their parents."
>
>"Why not have a computer program that the student can control with the
>keyboard, or voice commands, that simulates the function of a pencil?
>Like a smart pencil that knows where to put the intermediate answers,
>where to put the final answers, and where to get the raw numbers that
>are used to get these answers?"
>
>Virtual Pencil can be used by the student in tutor mode to learn how to
>navigate around and solve math problems, with lots  of on-line help. In
>test mode the student does not  have the tutor and must know how to
>navigate, where to read the digits in the intermediate steps, and where
>to put the answers, just like a pencil.  Teachers can use Virtual Pencil
>to create an assignment or test, password protect it, and then send it
>to the student via email, save it to a diskette, print it or emboss it
>in Braille. The password prevents students switching from test mode to
>tutor mode or otherwise changing the assignment.  The same file can be
>printed-out for the other students in the class, saving the teacher a
>lot of time.
>
>The current product handles addition, subtraction, multiplication,
>division, and decimals.  Future versions will do higher levels of math,
>like algebra, trigonometry, differential equations, and calculus.  The
>price is $99, for more information or to download a free demo go to the
>web page at www.HenterMath.com.

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