(Article reprinted here with permission from Toshiba)

The Green Mountains may not be a typical home for a technology company, but Tool Factory, Inc. is quite happy to be perched above the lush valleys of Vermont. From their headquarters in the Green Mountains, this educational software company has established a network of alliances with 15 publishers from around the globe. Tool Factory’s recently-launched catalog features 109 of the best tools, applications, and curriculum titles for K-12 education, as well as the Toshiba PDR-M61 digital camera. What is a digital camera doing in a catalog full of software products? Apparently, it’s getting a lot of educators excited about fun, new ways to integrate technology into educational projects.

Toshiba’s digital technology meshes amazingly well with Tool Factory’s mission to provide schools throughout North America with superior technology geared for learning. Digital photography provides teachers, administrators, and students with a sophisticated yet easy way to create and enhance a whole array of projects, from illustrated science reports, to stunning local history presentations, to professional-quality story books. Tool Factory publishes tools that allow users to drag and drop in pictures, graphics, text, video, and audio. Digital images that have been downloaded from the PDR-M61 to the computer are easily brought into multimedia pages, where they become integral communication and presentation tools at the fingertips of each project’s creator.

Educators can use the digital camera to design bulletin boards, inventory books and other supplies, record chalkboard notes, create field trip badges, document plant and animal growth, illustrate newsletters and school magazines, advertise plays and athletic events, and much more. Recognizing that many teachers are techno-phobic and just too busy with daily demands to learn new technology, Tool Factory, Inc. offers digital camera workshops to train teachers in just a few fun-filled hours. Teachers learn not only how to operate the PDR-M61 camera, but also how to build curriculum units that integrate digital photographs. Tool Factory has written a user’s manual for the PDR-M61, and teachers take this, the camera, and a Tool Factory software product home with them at the end of the workshop. The seminar is the same price as the camera and software combined, so the training is essentially free!

Products like Tool Factory Workshop offer educators and students all the tools they need to build incredible multimedia projects with their digital images. Hailed "the most student-friendly office suite ever built," Tool Factory Workshop includes Word Processor, Database, Spreadsheet, and Painter programs, as well as an Administrator and Bank Manager that give teachers control over the interface options and media bank content. Hundreds of clip art files, audio, video, and word banks put loads of material at users’ fingertips. Add to this rich bank the collection of digital images from the PDR-M61, and there’s no limit to the kinds of projects any Tool Factory Workshop user can make!

Another great digital camera software companion is MultiMedia Lab. Students and classrooms will be creating web pages and presentations in no time with these incredibly popular products. Both programs come with lots of templates and easy-to-use tools that enable users to add buttons, link pages, animate objects, and much more. The Tool Factory Digital Camera Workshop will train teachers on the software tool of their choice, giving attendees all they need to get started with projects in their own classrooms.

Teachers have long been searching for an easy and meaningful way to integrate technology into the curriculum, and Tool Factory, Inc. is excited to bring the Toshiba PDR-M61 digital camera to the attention of educators eager for something new. Curriculum projects are continually being posted for workshop attendees on Tool Factory’s website to fuel teachers with ideas and templates for lesson plans and projects. All of the curriculum projects will be consolidated and released on a Digital Camera Project CD later this year.

EDITOR'S CHOICE BLUE RIBBON AWARD TEACHING K-8 MAGAZINE

Tool Factory Workshop launches with an Editor's Choice Blue Ribbon from Teaching K-8 Magazine.

BLUE RIBBON SOFTWARE

Ready for back-to-school? Starting a new school year is simplified with these terrific software programs that are perfect for teachers getting materials ready, or for student applications for integrating technology in the curriculum.

Tool Factory Workshop Tool Factory Workshop from Tool Factory, Inc. is a comprehensive office suite designed with the K-12 student in mind. Each of the four application tools in the Workshop can be configured for elementary, middle and high school, or adult learners. The Workshop suite includes a talking word publisher, an intuitive paint program, an easy to use spreadsheet, and a full-feature database with graphing features. All four office suite programs use the same basic interface which makes it easy for students to switch from one program to the next.

Tool Factory Word Processor. This is a talking word processor that is as easy as using pencil and paper. Writing is as easy as clicking and beginning to type - anywhere you want to on the page! Wherever you click the mouse, that is where text begins. A speech engine (only with the Mac version) makes it possible to read a letter, word, or sentence.

Editing text and objects is a simple process. Just double click to make any text an object. A green dot will appear in the object which allows you to rotate the text in any direction. A right click on the corner lets you resize the text. Editing options are the same when you double click an image. You can even grab the corner to resize a video window!

A Bank on the left of all the application tools provides students with a word bank, a graphics bank, a video bank, and an audio bank to add to their work. Tool Factory Workshop provides a comprehensive library of multimedia for use in the classroom.

Tool Factory Painter. What a powerful art program! Choose from basic colors to a palette of thousands, add special effects such as wash, tint, swirl, and ripple, clone your drawing, or use the stamping feature to grab clip art or photos and stamp them on the page. Right click on a tool to change the property for pen size or shape. My students loved using the tool to draw in quadrants for working with symmetry and creating beautiful tessellations and quilt patterns for a social studies unit on Colonial America.

Tool Factory Spreadsheet. You’ll find all the usual spreadsheet functions, plus the ability to add pictures, sound, and video from the Bank. Formulas for all the standard calculations are included and can be easily graphed. Just research a topic and enter your own data to interpret.

Tool Factory Database. Manipulating data has never been more fun! Use the Bank to add multimedia, collect and sort data, and create graphs to support science experiments.

Administration Tools. Tool Factory Administrator ties all four programs together and gives the teacher control of options for the whole class or individual students. The interface can be customized for all applications to fit the lesson and the ability of students. Provide large icons and limit the number of available icons for Kindergarten, or configure the interface for a lesson on adding graphics and delete unused icons from the setup. All configurations can be saved for later use.

A special Tool Factory Bank Manager lets teachers add to the Bank. Use the manager to edit existing multimedia or create new banks of words, images, video, and sounds to fit the demands of projects in your specific curriculum. All of the banks can be searched.

Support materials are available online, and you can download free clip art, lesson plans, and printable worksheets. For more information, contact www.toolfactory.com or call 800-220-8386. Mac/Win95/98; $199.95.

Link to Teaching K-8 Magazine website.