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Presenter(s)
Ted & Emley Henter
Henter Math
P.O. Box 40430
St. Petersburg, FL 33743-0430
(888) 533-6284 - Toll Free
(727) 302-9422 - Fax
Virtual Pencil Algebra is the first of its kind where students who are Pencil Impaired, meaning blind or visually impaired, motor impaired, or learning disabled, can edit and solve algebra problems with ease and time efficiency. For students who are blind or visually impaired it works with the screen reader JAWS to read the equation out loud to the student allowing them to then decide the next step of the problem until they come to a solution.
VP Algebra is capable of inserting exponents, quantities, fractions, angles, degrees, matrix, absolute values, radicals, and Greek symbols. There is a reading cursor included so the student can go to a previous equation and read what was done with out accidentally changing it. When doing this the voice pitch will change so that the student can differentiate between the writing cursor and the reading cursor. The voice pitch will also change from higher to lower to indicate to the student where they are in the current equation. The algebra problem is displayed on the screen one equation above the other as if writing it on lined paper. The student must then decide what the next step of the problem will be and enter it. Just like using a pencil.
Teachers can create an assignment , password protect it, and then send it to the student via email, save it to a diskette, save it to the hard drive, or print it or emboss it. When emailing it or saving it, the password will stay with the assignment file wherever it goes. This is designed to prevent students from altering the problems, so the test results will be valid. When an assignment or test is created in VP Algebra, the same file can be printed-out for the able-bodied students in the class, saving the teacher a lot of time.
There are many options to change the look and behavior of VP Algebra to best suit the students needs. Some of the things that can be changed are the font size and color, background color, the amount of information displayed or spoken, and cursor style.
For more information on VP Algebra and other products by Henter Math please visit our website at www.VirtualPencil.com or call us at (888) 533-6284.
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