Press Release - 040504

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Press Release

GTCO CalComp Acquires EduCue

Personal Response System to Join InterWrite Interactive Classroom Products—
Allows Instant Assessment of Student Comprehension

COLUMBIA, MD—April 5, 2004 – GTCO CalComp, Inc. today announced it has completed the acquisition of privately held EduCue of Alplaus, New York, a pioneering developer of audience response systems and whose primary product is the Personal Response System™ (PRS).

“PRS improves the ability of teachers to accurately and instantly assess student comprehension, and is an ideal complement to our extensive line of interactive whiteboards for education. We are committed to being the leader in interactive classroom technology, and PRS is the most widely adopted audience response system in the Higher Education market today with nearly 200,000 users at some 300 universities,” said Eric Timmons, president of GTCO CalComp. A typical PRS installation consists of 40 up to 400 pocket-sized wireless infrared transmitters, and one or more receivers connected to a PC or MAC. Students' responses are captured, processed and instantly displayed for real-time feedback, and can also be saved to a grade book and later uploaded to a university-wide content management application.

Pearson Prentice Hall, the nation's leading secondary educational publisher, is helping to bring EduCue's PRS to the attention of educators across the U.S. According to John Challice, Pearson Prentice Hall's Vice President, Editor in Chief of Science, "The advent of transmitters in the classroom is dramatically changing the way teachers teach and students learn. EduCue is already the leading company in this space at universities and colleges. Joining forces with GTCO CalComp will mean even better products, better support and in turn an even better educational experience for students. This will be good for GTCO CalComp, for EduCue and for anyone who might ever use the PRS system."

“The assessment capabilities provided by PRS ideally complement the superior delivery of information provided by GTCO CalComp’s family of interactive whiteboards—the InterWrite SchoolBoard, SchoolPad and iPanel. Together, these products ‘close the loop’ to provide a superior learning experience” explained Timmons. “With distribution partners in over 90 countries, a strong technical support organization and an outstanding product development team, GTCO CalComp will be able to provide EduCue customers and partners with world class interactive systems and responsive product support at both the individual as well as University level.”

All EduCue products will be available from GTCO CalComp—through its strategic partners, its extensive network of resellers or through university bookstores. Furthermore, EduCue customers will receive product support for their PRS systems from any GTCO CalComp technical support office in the US or Europe.

For more information about GTCO CalComp and our InterWrite products visit www.gtcocalcomp.com.

EduCue, LLC is the world leader in Higher Education classroom response systems. Founded in 1997, EduCue LLC patented and pioneered the use of low cost handheld Infrared systems for audience feedback. Located in Alplaus, New York, EduCue products can be found in classrooms in over 20 countries, meeting the needs of educators worldwide.

GTCO CalComp is a leader in computer input peripherals, with over one million systems installed worldwide. Founded in 1975, GTCO CalComp pioneered the use of pen-based electromagnetic sensing technology currently utilized in the Company’s Interactive Whiteboard and Digitizer product lines. GTCO CalComp Inc, a global company, is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, with offices in Scottsdale, Arizona, Vienna, Austria and Munich, Germany. GTCO CalComp maintains distribution partners in over 90 countries, providing solutions to professionals in Education, Training, Presentation, GIS, Computer Aided Design, Construction Estimating and Graphic Arts. For more information on the brands and products offered, visit the GTCO CalComp Web site at www.gtcocalcomp.com.