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Computers as cognitive tools: Learningwith technology, notfrom technology

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Abstract

COGNITIVE TOOLS are computer-based applications that are normally used as productivity software. However, these applications may also function as knowledge representation formalisms that require learners to think critically when using them to represent content being studied or what they already know about a subject. Applications such as databases, spreadsheets, semantic networks, expert systems, multimedia/hypermedia construction, can function as computer-based cognitive tools that function as intellectual partners with learners to expand and even amplify their thinking, thereby changing the role of learners in college classrooms to knowledge constructors rather than information reproducers. Cognitive tools are examples of learningwith technologies rather thanfrom them.

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  1. David H. Jonassen

    Present address: Department of Adult Education, Pennsylvania State University, Chambers Building, 16802-3204, University Park, PA

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    1. David H. Jonassen
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    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    David Jonassen is professor and head of the Instructional Systems Program at The Pennsylvania State University. He has formerly held posts at the University of Colorado and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the author or editor of 15 books and numerous professional papers on instructional design. computer applications, hypermedia, and knowledge representation.

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    Jonassen, D.H. Computers as cognitive tools: Learningwith technology, notfrom technology. J. Comput. High. Educ. 6, 40–73 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02941038

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