What's New In Toolbox 4.0 Wednesday, October 28,2009
Toolbox 4.0 is Here!
This release marks the beginning of greater things to come in Toolbox. This version not only adds some important features but also makes your planning simpler. This release also give us the flexibility to implement changes more efficiently in the future! Some of the major benefits of this release include:
Simultaneous Collaboration: This is huge! Our customers have been asking for this for a while and it is finally here! Toolbox users will be able to work on the same units, lessons, courses, and activities at the same time on multiple computers. No more "Object in use" messages to slow your productivity.
Combining of Course and Unit Planner: We have eliminated the separate Course Planner for licensed Power Curriculum Tool members. In Toolbox 4.0 all planning decisions are made within a unit. You will align your State Standards directly to the K-U-D Organizer and Concepts on the Student Learning Map saving countless time by not having to negotiate between planners.
Ability to Prioritize Straight From Planner: Additionally, for licensed Power Curriculum Tool members,Toolbox 4.0 gives you the ability to prioritize from the planner itself. This will also save you precious time if you need to change the prioritization of a standard. We really do listen to what you ask for!
Increased Stability, Flexibility, and Performance: We took our time to re-write the program using better technology(Java Script). Now, Toolbox 4.0 will be more stable, allow us to add features more easily, and run faster.
We know that these changes may create questions but we are confident that they are for the better! Please see our online help section and Tip of the Week section for more assistance such as helps guides, video demos and more... You can also give us a call at 828-414-4536 or email us at toolbox@LearningFocused.com
Important Toolbox License Information!! Friday, October 16,2009
Important License Information!!
You may recall that the way Toolbox licensing worked changed on November 17th 2008. Prior to that date, a license was not required to use Toolbox. All members licensed before November 17th 2008 were given an additional 12 months to use Toolbox. Well, that date is quickly approaching. The best way to check the expiration date on your licenses, is to click Tools...My Licenses. Your license info will be shown there. If you fall into that above category or if you just want to extend your license's expiration date, you will need to act on one of the options below.
Learning-Focused Books and Flipcharts: Because we want legitimate Learning-Focused teachers to be able to use Toolbox freely, almost all Learning-Focused books and flipcharts have a Unit and Lesson Planning Tool license key on the front or back cover. Simply enter the license key or keys if you have multiple books and you will be licensed for 1 or more years! If you have purchased a book or flipchart from Learning-Focused since April 2008 and it did not come with a key, there is a form under My Licenses to request a license key.
If you have purchased a book or flipchart from Learning-Focused since April 2008 and it did not come with a key... Let us Know Here!
Purchase License: If you want to purchase a license key without purchasing a book or flipchart, an annual Unit and Lesson Planning Tool license can be purchased for $10.
Toolbox Administrators:If you are an administrator of a school or district that has purchased many Learning-Focused materials for every teacher in the past 24 months, please let us know using the form under My Licenses and we will work with you to provide licenses for your staff.
Click the following link in order to access our license form... Let us Know Here!
Power Curriculum Tool UsersIf you are licensed with the Power Curriculum Tool, it automatically includes the Unit and Lesson Planning Tool.
Welcome to our new online Twitter presence! Friday, June 5,2009
Learning-Focused is Now Twittering!
Learning-Focused has joined twitter! We think it is great way to stay in contact with our appreciated clients. We will be sending out tips, announcements,feedback request, and everything else you can think of! We excitedly invite you to follow us on twitter! Click on the twitter image to access our twitter profile page...
Notice:Sharing Your Documents Friday, March 13,2009
You may have noticed that when you right click on a document on the "My Dashboard" page, the sharing feature is not there under "Utilities". Currently, the Sharing feature has to be accessed from the "Toolbox Explorer" page. Navigate to the "Toolbox Explorer" page by clicking on Tools...Explorer. Once there, you will find the sharing feature in the right click menu under "Utilities" for your documents. Thank you for your patience. We are working on this and will keep you informed of new updates concerning this.
Toolbox Planner Update! Tuesday, February 24,2009
We are pleased to announce that the Toolbox development team has finalized a software update for the Toolbox planner that not only fixes some of the issues we’ve heard about, but also introduces several cool new features.
In this latest update you will find:
Click and Drag Feature on the Acquisition Lessons Decision: Toolbox has a new feature that lets you click and drag preloaded Activating Strategies, Graphic Organizer titles, Extending Thinking Activities, and Summarizing Strategies into your Acquisition Lessons.
Ability to Add Assessment Prompts: This new feature allows you to create Assessment Prompt(s) on the Acquisition Lesson decision. These prompts can then be clicked and dragged into the "Instruction" field found on the Acquisition Lesson decision.
Student Assessment Decision Change: The previous Student Assessment decision is now combined with the previous Culminating Activity decision.This new combined decision is called "Assessments". It is located beside the KUD decision.
Check out the Help Contents to learn what is new and how to use these new features.
Updating any program is something that takes a lot of effort to do –not only do teachers, trainers, programmers, and production designers all have to be involved at some point, but each change has to go through a rigorous Quality Assurance pass to make sure that it doesn't introduce any new issues (like corrupting old save data, for example). The entire process can take weeks for a simple day's worth of fixing!
Because of this, we're very aware that there are features that Toolbox Members have requested that aren't addressed in this software update. We want to make it very clear that we're listening to all of your requests, and actively want to get these features into Toolbox in the future –but when we do add them, we also want them to be 100% perfect, and not rushed just to make it into any specific software update.
Lastly, and most importantly, thanks for being an awesome community! There are changes in this software update that wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the well-reasoned and polite attitude that most of the members on Toolbox have. Thank you for contributing your ideas and suggestions! We look forward to providing you with great new features every month.
Do you know a teacher that needs a license to use Toolbox? If your school/district has purchased sets of Learning-Focused notebooks or flipcharts in the past year, complete the form on My Licenses to request keys. Learning-Focused is dedicated to providing Toolbox for planning and development for our workshop and book clients.
Learning Focused Collections Catalog Thursday, February 12,2009
Solutions For You!
Learning Focused has created a collection of tools and help that addresses your specific needs. Please download the Learning Focused Collections Catalog below...
