Tool Factory began as a licensing agency for overseas software companies. We discovered that many of the top selling titles in foreign markets were not being distributed in North America. The problems with bringing in foreign software can be anything from computer platform concerns, to the simple differences of semantics in language presentation (colour instead of color). As Mark Twain noted "We are two peoples separated by a common language." That separation intensifies in magnitudes when working with companies whose first languages are not English.

Many foreign markets have proven to be ahead of the United States with regards to their technology integration in the classroom. Particularly in the UK and Scandinavia, software design shows many innovations that are tailored for the specific needs of the classroom environment. Seeing that so much effective software simply wasn't being utilized in the United States, we began to research what it would take to make the changes necessary for the award-winning titles from overseas to be effectively marketed in North America.

Tool Factory was founded with a simple goal-- to make a difference in American education. That determination has spread to the staff. Located in the Green Mountains of Vermont, Tool Factory is a diverse group of marketing staff, programmers, artists, reps, and development partners abroad. Publishing alliances have been forged with Granada Learning, Sherston Software, and 13 other well-established publishers from various markets around the globe. Tool Factory also works with Olympus to bring digital cameras to schools, and Dell and Hewlett Packard through their bundling programs.

Tool Factory's current catalog features over 150 CD-ROM products, digital cameras, and training seminars, all geared for K-12 education and inclusion classrooms. Each product was carefully selected from a wide field of exceptional software, resulting in the cream-of-the-crop collection of titles. To complement our mainstream education line, Tool Factory launched a catalog of special education CD-ROM products in the Fall of 2003. These titles which were developed by special educators and speech pathologists, are already used in thousands of classrooms across the UK and Australia. Since then, nearly every product Tool Factory launches includes features for inclusive classroom teaching. We have seen firsthand, that computers can be tremendous motivators, particularly for students with disabilities.

American teachers, parents, and students always play a crucial role in previewing the products, ensuring that each one will serve to reinforce the curriculum and reinvigorate the classrooms of schools across the United States. We always know a Tool Factory product when we see one. It makes our kid-testers say "Wow...cool!" It makes our parent-testers say "Now that's something I want for my kids." It makes our teacher-testers say "Boy, a lot of thought went into this...I need this for my classroom."

That's what we're about--making a difference in education.