THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 4, 1996 TAG: 9602030418
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 157 lines
Close-cropped and square-jawed, John Cahoon Jr. looks more like a drill instructor than a solicitous educator encouraging classroom feedback and participation.
But Cahoon, president and majority owner of Chesapeake-based Consulting Associates Inc., is betting the fortunes of his fledgling company that the future is in student interaction.
With help from Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology and a couple of the state's largest universities, Cahoon and company have developed what is essentially a mobile, computerized classroom of the future.
It's a podium on wheels that's jam-packed with gizmos like a videodisc player and CD-ROM for turning a classroom into an interactive, multimedia theater.
On Tuesday, after five years of research and development, Consulting Associates will roll out its Cactis MultiPro system in a splashy news conference at the National Press Club in Washington.
This story demonstrates how a nimble little company can leverage its own ambition and resourcefulness to tap the money and know-how of state agencies and universities. Both are being measured increasingly by how well they stimulate economic development.
If Consulting Associates succeeds, it will be one of a relatively few small defense contractors to transition into the commercial marketplace. About 80 percent of the company's $4 million in annual revenues are now generated from Army contracts.
It's a big gamble. But the gung-ho Cahoon sounds more worried about potential success than failure. He's so convinced that his high-tech podium will sell - at prices as high as $45,000 each - that he's been thinking lately about how to manage his company's expected growth.
``We're a small company,'' he said, ``and we're going about as fast as we can humanly go.''
The evolution of Cactis MultiPro began in 1991, about the time that Cahoon launched the company. He'd been a senior civilian executive in the Defense Department for 23 years. He launched and sold a couple of other military contractors before starting Consulting Associates.
Some friends suggested that he steer his new company into specialized training. It was a rapidly growing field for defense companies - especially with the advent of computer-assisted instruction.
Cahoon said that at first he resisted the idea. Then he started talking to teachers in various settings, from high schools and universities to military schools and corporate training institutes.
The most common complaint he heard was that it is difficult or impossible to ``really assess the progress of a student except at test or quiz time.'' That's because a small percentage of students in a typical class regularly participate in discussions.
It wasn't a great discovery. Teachers have lamented the lack of student participation for centuries.
But it got Cahoon to thinking. Having a technological bent, he started exploring how educators have used computers and other high-tech devices in classrooms.
Today's typical classrooms of the future have computers at every desk and are used by multiple classes of students each week. They're essentially dedicated rooms that are expensive to wire, equip and operate. In some cases they're barely utilized.
Why not try something different? Why not take the classroom to the student instead? Cahoon asked.
He started visualizing a cart filled with devices for making a presentation, one that can be rolled in and out of classrooms. He envisioned the students, instead of clicking away at bulky computers, holding palm-sized touch pads. They'd use the wireless pads to respond to the teacher's questions, vote on which subjects to cover, or take tests.
For several years, using profits generated from its Army contracts, Cahoon and his employees at Consulting Associates chipped away at building such a system. They learned how to integrate the various components that would be part of the podium. Intent on making the system as wireless as possible, they immersed themselves in studies of radio frequencies and interferences.
They got a couple of breaks. At the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, they beat IBM Corp. in a competition to install an interactive-learning system in a physics classroom. Even though the system wasn't at all like the current podium, the victory gave Cahoon and his cohorts the confidence that they could compete with giants.
But about a year ago, Cahoon said he realized that he needed outside help. There simply weren't enough profits in the company to fund continued development of the podium. Cahoon was reluctant to put the company into debt - and not all that confident that banks would be willing to lend money for the project anyway.
So he turned to the Herndon-based Center for Innovative Technology, which in turn directed him to engineering professors and other technologists at Old Dominion University and Virginia Tech. With this outside help, Consulting Associates quickly assembled a prototype for CIT's annual technology showcase last spring in Northern Virginia.
All told, the company has gotten about $150,000 in grants or in-kind services from state agencies and universities, Cahoon estimated.
The podium, crude as it then was, was one of the hits of last year's show, said Robert W. Harrell Jr., CIT's regional director. ``The big companies that participated in the showcase were all interested in it,'' Harrell said.
Cahoon said one big Japanese electronics manager asked to photograph every element of the system. He rejected the request. Consulting Associates now has 14 patents pending, Cahoon said, and he's not interested in giving potential competitors a head start.
His company's podium won't be alone on the market, Cahoon conceded. In the last few years, a few other companies have gotten the same general idea. But no other podium incorporates as many presentation devices as Consulting Associates' or costs as little, he said. Rivals' systems go for as much as $120,000 - about three times the price of Consulting Associates' most expensive unit.
Competitors' units also typically have many more wires, which limit their mobility, Cahoon said. The Cactis MultiPro has a wireless mouse that lets the teacher go anywhere in the classroom and control the components in the podium. It uses wireless speakers too.
Will it sell? Time will tell.
Cahoon said he's already gotten inquiries from universities, military schools and overseas vendors. He said some think they can use the podium as a platform for satellite broadcasts or other distance-learning programs. He's projecting first-year sales of about 75 units and expects to add another dozen employees to his company's 55-person work force.
Frank W. Connolly, a professor of information systems at the American University in Washington, said he sees the podium's potential. Its portability and its wireless interactive elements will be valuable selling points, he said.
But Connolly, who has researched and written papers about feedback classrooms, said the true test of the podium will be how easy it is for teachers to master.
``The biggest problem with technology today,'' he said, ``is that teachers are for the most part uncomfortable with using it ... It can take a lot of effort to put all of it together in a flowing presentation that engages the student.''
Cahoon isn't worried. He said most teachers will find his company's system easy to use.
A whole world of opportunities has opened up from his company's development of the podium, he said. Consulting Associates is continuing, with ODU's and Virginia Tech's help, to develop wireless and other technologies. It's planning to create multimedia aviation-maintenance ``courseware'' for the military. But for now, the main challenge is to stay focused and make its new product a success.
``We have to be careful,'' Cahoon said. ``But I think we can run as fast as any of the big companies out there.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
JIM WALKER/The Virginian-Pilot
John Cahoon Jr. is bringing to market a podium on wheels packed with
gizmos like a videodisc player and CD-ROM for turning a classroom
into an interactive, multimedia theater.
Graphic
CONSULTING ASSOCIATES INC.
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
Photo
JIM WALKER/The Virginian-Pilot
Addressing teachers' lament that few students participate in
discussions, Cahoon envisioned students using palm-sized wireless
touchpads to respond to the teacher's questions, vote on which
subjects to cover, or take tests.
by CNB