Chatter Box - the educational version of Mind Star Interactor (1 - 5 Users).

The Chatter Box Chat Machine is a computer conversationalist.  It is designed 
to help students practice conversational English.  Students can use it to 
engage in "real-life" conversations - with a computer.  Teachers may assign
Chatter Box practice sessions for  

      -  working with various vocabularies
      -  exploring different tenses
      -  working on agreement in person between subject and verb
      -  constructing complete sentences
      -  practicing the use of various clause structures
      -  practicing different styles of expression.

When a student types "HI" at the MS-DOS prompt, Chatter Box will answer 
"Good morning, student..." via the computer screen and ask whether a printed 
copy of the conversation is desired.  Chatter Box then asks something like
"What's new?" or "What's happening?", and the student may take the 
conversation anywhere.  Chatter Box acts like a comedian's "straight man",
asking, "Why is that?", or "What is at the heart of it?".  It also includes
frequent "And ...", "Yes?" and "You do say!" responses to moderate the heat 
of the conversation. Its selection of each response is powerfully influenced 
by the words that the student has typed.

Chatter Box knows something about emotions.

When a student expresses emotion, Chatter Box invites an exploration of 
its causes.  Chatter Box responds supportively to positive feelings and    
inquiringly to negative feelings.  It examines many cues in the user input 
to determine its responses.

Students can discuss the past and the future -  Chatter Box will understand.
Chatter Box responds in general ways to anything a student wishes to discuss.  
A group of students can take turns inputting sentences, making a game out of 
practicing their English skills.  

Chatter Box gives students a direct, immediate challenge - to spontaneously
construct meaningful sentences in English.  The printed output is date
stamped and is easily gradeable.  The student receives a permanent record of 
the work.  The teacher has a chance to see students in action and to identify 
problems that may not surface in the regular teaching process. 

Students who are uncertain about conversing with a computer can use an 
"INTRO" program, included with the package, to help themselves begin 
to express their ideas about the things that matter most for them.

Chatter Box does not require Windows, although it will run on Windows comp-
uters that have sufficient lower memory.  It runs best on an 80386 or faster 
personal computer and uses 485,000 bytes of lower memory. 


To chat with Chatter Box, download the CBOXDxx.ZIP file.  Make a directory 
on the computer's hard drive named C:\CHAT.  "UnZIP" Chatter Box - 
decompress it - into this directory.  From within this directory, type  HI  
to start a conversation with Chatter Box.

To install it so that someone can type "HI" and run it from anywhere in 
MS-DOS, type:  "COPY  C:\CHAT\HIC.BAT  C:\HI.BAT" at the MS-DOS prompt.  This 
adds a file, HI.BAT to the root directory, which is usually on the path.  The  
HI.BAT file could be copied into the DOS directory instead, if desired.

If you receive Chatter Box on a disk with the files already decompressed,
just make the disk current by typing "A:" or "B:", then type "INSTALL" to 
install Chatter Box into a new directory called C:\CHAT and to enable 
the HI command as described above.

Similarly, if you decompress the .ZIP file into a directory other than
C:\CHAT, just type INSTALL from within that directory.

Files on this disk should include:
--------                   \
CHATTER BOX                \
THE                        \
MINDSTAR                   \   These files are only labels.
CHAT                       \
MACHINE                    \
-------                    \   
TYPE                       \
HI                         \
TO                         \
RUN                        \
------                     \
HI.BAT          - This runs CHATBOX.EXE
HIC.BAT         - This gets copied to C:\ and runs CHATBOX once installed. 
CHATBOX.EXE     - The Chatter Box Chat Machine.
INSTALL.BAT     - Installs the above on the computer's hard drive.
-----
INTRO.EXE       - A brief introduction to Chatter Box.
README.TXT      - The file that you are reading now.
README.BAT      - This prints README.TXT on the screen.
LICENSE.TXT     - This is the application for a site license.  To make 
                  a paper copy, type  PRINT LICENSE.TXT  and press Enter.


This first educational version of Chatter Box has been extensively tested
by the developer but has not yet been field tested.  The user is invited 
to try it out and to let us know what changes might improve it.  Does it 
really help students learn?  How might it work better?

This version may be made available on up to five computer desktops per site 
with no payment of fee.  For six or more machines we ask of our users a fee 
of $3.00 per unit per year.  Users who pay this fee - $18 minimum - receive
the newest multiple-use Chatter Box, update announcements, and a site license.   
A single individual may license a site.

If someone you know would be interested in evaluating Chatter Box, please
feel free to pass along this "field test demo" version to them.  

Thank you.

Dan Stevens
Chicago, IL 12/31/95
                                                           

The Chatter Box Chat Machine is published by  

Marvelmatics
1507 East 53rd Street #314
Chicago, IL 60615

Copyright 1992, 1995.  Chatter Box is licensed to each user.  




Type  HI  to run Chatter Box now,  INSTALL  to copy it to the hard drive.

Type  PRINT LICENSE.TXT  to print a copy of the license request.   

                                           



