Cognitive tools - lainattu lähdettä:
Personal Computing: A Source of Powerful Cognitive Tools
Helga A.H. Rowe
Principal Research Fellow
Australian Council For Educational Research
PO Box 210 Hawthorn Victoria 3122
http://www.educationau.edu.au/archives/cp/REFS/rowe_cogtools.htm
" Cognitive tools
During the past two decades, methods of teaching and learning objectives have become increasingly cognitively oriented, i.e. more responsibility for learning and motivation is invested in the students. Teachers and curriculum developers are trying to engage learners in more meaningful tasks and hence more meaningful mental processing. It seems ironic, therefore, that few tools have ever been designed specifically to facilitate learning. The chalk board is one of the notable exceptions, particularly in the light of its popularity and longevity. Other tools, such as paper, pencils, rulers and calculators have become important to education. Many tools and media, such as projectors, transmitters and computers have been retroactively adapted to serve educational purposes. Few have been developed with learning as the primary goal. The availability of computers, particularly personal computers, has changed this drastically. They allow for the adaptation and/or development of tools with only one purpose in mind: to support learning. These tools are different from normal, task-specific tools. They are generalisable in that they can facilitate cognitive processes such as thinking, problem solving and learning. This is why one might refer to them as cognitive tools. Just as a convection oven supports the cooking process, cognitive tools support the learning process.
We define cognitive tools as mental and/or technological devices which support, guide and extend the thinking processes of their users (cf. Rowe, 1988, 1989). Many cognitive tools, such as cognitive and metacognitive strategies are internal to the learner. However, the tools being discussed here are external, computer-based procedures and environments which extend the thinking processes of learners. These tools engage learners in more meaningful cognitive processing. They are tools which can be used for the construction and facilitation of knowledge and can be applied to mediate learning in most subjects. The cognitive tools preceding computer technology that have tended to receive most attention in this respect, are writing systems, systems of mathematical notation and systems of visual/spatial representation.
Cognitive tools, such as written languages, are commonly thought of as cultural amplifiers of the intellect, to use Jerome Bruner's influential phrase (1966, p.xii) . They are cultural means of empowering human cognitive capacities. The research literature suggests that cultures with technologies such as written language push intellectual growth better, earlier and longer than cultures without such tools. We find similar predictions for computer technologies based on the widespread belief that computers will inevitably and profoundly amplify human mental power, and alter both what we do and how we do it."