Cool C NEWS Page

A letter from a teacher in Anniston, Alabama: As a fourth grade teacher in a low income school, it has been my pleasure to use the CCQ program in my classroom. These devices have truly been a God sent for myself and my students. In my classroom, as in most across the United States, I have struggling readers. This program has worked dramatically in improving reading comprehension because of the study and test questions provided for each area of study. I have also witnessed the confidence levels of these struggling readers rise tremendously. They have access to books they would not otherwise have access to based on their ZPD (Zones of Proximal Development) which is taken into account when setting a student’s reading level through programs such as DIBELS and STAR testing. Many struggling readers and ELL students are able to understand a text that they may not be able to read fluently. Due to the Read feature in the CCQ program, my fourth graders are listening to classic pieces of literature such as The Wizard of Oz,  A Tale of Two Cities, The Jungle Book, and many others that they would not be able to borrow from our school library. After listening to each of these eBooks, I allow my students to take AR tests, and their scores have proven the program works. There are thirteen struggling readers in my class who use the CCQ program daily, and each of them have scored 80% or higher on the Accelerated Reader test for the books they have listened to. As a teacher, I know that all research conducted on struggling readers shows that seeing and listening to words and phrases repeatedly increases automatic word recognition and fluency, and the CCQ program provides them with such opportunities. We have been putting the PDA devices and CCQ program to work in my classroom for about four months and through these devices my students have made tremendous gains in reading skills, responsibility, and real world experiences they may otherwise never have had exposure to. All of my students use the devices to study for paper and pencil tests, gather information for research projects, and complete webquests. K. Landers Coldwater Elementary, Anniston, Alabama

Learning and Education are on the MOVE!  (find out more at: www.getCCQ.com – WATCH THE NEW VIDEO!)  We are also moving our location!  Interactive Speech Solutions has moved to a new and larger office space as of Monday, March 31, 2008.  The new location will replace our corporate office location at The Florida and Atlantic University Research Park in Boca Raton, FL and our former development office in Plantation, FL.  The new address is:  Interactive Speech Solutions, LLC 100 N.W. 70th Avenue, Suite 115 Plantation, Florida  33317 Our phone number remains the same:  Phone:  954-793-4858   Fax:  954-793-4859 You can find us on the web at each of these locations:  www.Traveling-Tutor.com www.GetCCQ.com www.CoolConversations.com   FOR SALES INFORMATION: getccq@getccq.com   Visit us at NECC 2008 We want to let you know that the Cool Conversations Quiz and Traveling-Tutor™ will be a featured education product at both the Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard exhibit areas at the 2008 National Education Computing Conference in San Antonio, TX this June 29 through July 2, 2008.  Visit us there to learn more and try out the CCQ Traveling-Tutor for yourself - see how it can benefit your students!  Best regards, The CCQ Traveling-Tutor Team  Play the video at:  www.getCCQ.com

Cool Conversations Quiz & Traveling-Tutor featured by both Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft at 2008 FETC in Orlando, FL

The conference you can't afford to miss! The Cool Conversations Quiz & Traveling-Tutor™ was featured at both the Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard exhibit areas at the Florida Education Technology Convention in Orlando, Florida from January 22-25, 2008.  FETC, is one of the largest, most successful conferences in the United States devoted to educational technology.  The conference program is designed so educators and administrators have an opportunity to learn how to integrate different technologies across the curriculum – from kindergarten to college – while being exposed to the latest hardware, software and successful strategies on student technology use.  FETC is designed for teachers, principals and deans, district administrators, curriculum designers, media specialists, technology directors and various other educators.

ISS Partners with The Honey Project

Technology Partnership Makes Learning for Teens Sweet The Honey Project is a company run and operated by Teens.   Headquartered in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida the Honey Project provides high school students a free 12-week Entrepreneurship training (currently held at Keiser University).  With the completion, students have an opportunity to put their skills to practice in a legitimate business setting at the Honey Project running the business of importing and marketing organic honey from Western Africa.  This unique program and company exposes teens to a multitude of technology applications and tools including the HP iPAQ.  In mid 2007, six dedicated student partners were selected to be part of a pilot program, with each receiving a HP iPAQ-2790 PDA with the CCQ Traveling-Tutor™ learning system to be used as a business and academic tool.  Today, with a long-term partnership agreement between the non-profit education project, Minority E-Commerce Association, Inc. (MECA) – Honey Project and Interactive Speech Solutions, LLC (ISS) a Florida company, the goal will be to equip each student partner in the Honey Project with an HP iPAQ 2790 PDA (or equivalent) and the CCQ Travelling-Tutor Learning System. This project will combine the use of the Hewlett-Packard iPAQ 2790 including the ISS Cool Conversations Quiz & Traveling-Tutor™ (CCQ) software as a key component in the Honey Project’s young entrepreneur development project.   This project provides a multi-purpose platform for young teems enabling “Business and Learning” on-the-move with access to advanced training materials designed to help them become successful business professionals while supplementing their academic training, including an extensive reading program such as a wide range of e-books.  CCQ is a complete study, testing, assessment, content development and reporting application that gives the HP handheld devices the ability to talk to users.  This system is being promoted nationally by Microsoft, HP and ISS and was the featured Microsoft Mobility Solution for Education at this year’s National Education Computing Conference in Atlanta.  The handheld, totally mobile HP PDA is the perfect technology to compliment the Honey Project educational entrepreneurial program.   The pilot program has shown the rise in confidence in the students with access to vital technology.  In 2008, the new partnership will bridge the digital divide enabling all Honey Project student partners’ access to vital Business and Training technology. The Honey Project may be contacted at 954-358-5283 and the website is www.honeyproject.com.  Interactive Speech Solutions may be contacted at (954) 793-4859 and the website is www.getccq.com.

Microsoft and ISS at NECC 2007 in Atlanta

Executing on a Global Education Vision: Microsoft Unveils Range of Products, Resources to Improve Learning Environments and Experiences Students meet with Bill Gates; Microsoft announces Student with Encarta Premium 2008, Cool Conversations Traveling Tutor and the School of the Future Resource Kit. ATLANTA — June 26, 2007 — On the heels of its announcement yesterday of a strategic alliance with Houghton Mifflin Learning Technology, a division of publishing leader Houghton Mifflin Co., Microsoft Corp. today announced at the National Educational Computing Conference the release of several education-focused products and resources, including Microsoft® Student with Encarta® Premium 2008, the Cool Conversations Traveling Tutor™ and the School of the Future Resource Kit.  Learning on the Move: Cool Conversations Traveling Tutor.   In alliance with Interactive Speech Solutions LLC, Microsoft announced the release of Cool Conversations (CCQ) Traveling Tutor, a complete study, testing, assessment, content development and reporting application that gives any Microsoft Windows®-based computer, including desktop PCs, laptops and other handheld devices, the ability to interact verbally with users. Through the use of Microsoft Windows Mobile®, CCQ Traveling Tutor merges the natural speech synthesis capabilities offered by today’s computers with the latest advances in mobile technology, resulting in a mobile, talking computer that can speak to the child in English, Spanish or 20 other languages.   CCQ Traveling Tutor requires no connection to the Internet to function, bridging the gap of opportunity often faced by students who lack access to Internet-based programs outside school. Once content is loaded on the mobile device, students can work in school, on the bus, at home, anywhere and anytime. The CCQ system stores a report of all the student’s activity, which can be transferred to the teacher’s computer when the student returns to the classroom.

 

Excerpt from Boyd Anderson PASS Newsletter

NSTEP Contributes Content for CCQ Reading Tutor Program
NSTEP has contributed a number of science and technology articles from their newsletter archives for use in the CCQ Reading Tutor program targeted for middle and high school students.  Cool C Quiz featured in TechExplorer newsletter distributed to over 200,000 students and teachers.  NSTEP works on behalf of the greater electronics community to develop tomorrow's technology leaders. We are dedicated to creating partnerships between the business and educational communities that:

• Bring the excitement and innovation of the electronic industries into the classroom to help young people learn;
• Provide teachers with unique opportunities to integrate technology into the curriculum and innovative ways of engaging students in the sciences;
• Promote learning experiences that help young people develop greater awareness of electronics, telecommunications and high-tech companies and careers;
• Offer businesses an opportunity to strengthen education in their own communities; and
• Help to bridge the digital divide by bringing technology education into underserved communities.

ICE puts CCQ Education System to Work for Kids

Fort Lauderdale , Florida.  Working to bridge the digital divide and support the education needs of local children, the Institute for Community Empowerment (ICE) has installed Interactive Speech Solutions’ Cool C™ Quiz on the computers in its Fort Lauderdale , Florida location.   The Cool C Quiz (CCQ) is a new “talking computer” software release from Interactive Speech Solutions (ISS).  CCQ is a virtual tutor, designed for Windows® based computers, that provides an interactive quiz learning experience.  “CCQ is ideally suited to our program” said Arlon Kennedy , Executive Director of the ICE Cube Program.  “Our program teaches children to be skilled with computers by using the computer as a teaching tool.  CCQ gives our computers the ability to talk to each child and act as a tutor with extensive curriculum based content and the great part is that the children really enjoy working with CCQ.  Having a talking computer makes it very user friendly and for the kids, it’s like being on a TV game show or playing an interactive video game.  They have fun with CCQ and we know it is going to help them be better prepared for state required testing (FCAT).”