Deal is turning point

A Youngstown company is bracing for the effects of a national sales contract.
& lt;a href=mailto:shilling@vindy.com & gt;By DON SHILLING & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- A downtown software developer will be a key part of Dell Computer's effort to bring advanced technology to the nation's classrooms.
Turning Technologies announced today that it will provide a student response system as part of Dell's Intelligent Classroom initiative.
"It's a great opportunity," said Mike Broderick, president of Turning Technologies. "It gets us national exposure."
Texas-based Dell is the world's No. 1 computer maker and has been expanding into related areas, such as selling the Intelligent Classroom package to school districts and universities.
It calls for teachers and professors to receive a computer, large-screen projector, a camera for placing items on the screen, electronic whiteboard and the TurningPoint system developed by the Youngstown company.
TurningPoint is similar to other products that allow TV game show audiences to respond to questions by punching a button on a hand-held device.
A teacher adds questions into a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. Students respond on wireless keypads, and the teacher has instantaneous responses that can be used for grades or to gauge the understanding of the group.
TurningPoint already is listed for sale on Dell's Web site for between $395 and $1,999.
Sales impact
Broderick doesn't yet know what impact the Dell deal will have on the 2-year-old company, but he said he's bracing for the effects.
A sales effort starts next week with 200,000 pieces of direct mail. Dell has nearly 1,000 sales representatives who will be offering the package to schools and universities, Broderick said. He and other company officials have been training them on how to use TurningPoint.
The product is being used by universities such as Ohio State and Notre Dame. As the program has becomes more popular, Turning Technologies has hired five people in the past couple of months, boosting its work force at the Youngstown Business Incubator to 13.
Future hiring will depend on the success of the Dell plan and other sales efforts, Broderick said.
Crestview
One area district, Crestview schools in Columbiana County, is excited about TurningPoint. The district bought a system with 30 keypads in January for about $3,000.
Daryl Miller, the district's technology coordinator, said officials like the system because of the feedback teachers can receive. A math teacher, for example, can include a problem in a lesson and know right away if students understand it.
"Instead of just hands raised in the air, teachers have hard facts," he said.
Miller said he has been running tests with the system, which will be unveiled to teachers and the public today at a technology demonstration. It will then travel to different classrooms, with an elementary school teacher being the first to use it next week.
"We're booked solid through the end of the year," he said.
In February, Turning Technologies signed a deal with Thomson Higher Education, one of the nation's leading providers of college textbooks. By fall, all of Thomson's textbooks will come with TurningPoint. It will be included in the PowerPoint packages that come with the books.
shilling@vindy.com