thinking will be constrained and controlled by the very materials they are developing( Jonassen, Wilson, Wang, & Grabinger, 1993). It follows that empowering learners to design and produce their own knowledge representations and educational communications can be a powerful learning experience.
Langer( 1989) reminded us of the importance of mindfulness in learning. Students learn and retain the most from thinking in meaningful( mindful) ways. Representing knowledge is a mindful task that can be enabled by cognitive tools such as multimedia construction software or electronic spreadsheets. Cognitive tools require students to think in meaningful ways about how to use an application ' s capabilities and features to represent what they know. Students not only learn deeply and mindfully with cognitive tools, their opportunities for reflection are also enhanced( Norman, 1983). There is considerable evidence that reflective thinking is under-utilized in education by both teachers and their students( Good & McCaslin, 1992), a problem that cognitive tools may help to ameliorate.
The Effects of Learning with and of Technology
Salomon, Perkins, and Globerson( 1991) make an important distinction between the effects of learning with and of technology:
First, we distinguish between two kinds of cognitive effects: Effects with technology obtained during intellectual partnership with it, and the effects of it in terms of the transferable cognitive residue that this partnership leaves behind in the form of better mastery of skills and strategies.( p. 2)
Cognitive tools are important in both respects. Salomon et al.( 1991) maintain that " the cognitive effects with computer tools greatly depend on the mindful engagement of learners in the tasks afforded by these tools "( p. 2), and that educators should empower learners with cognitive tools and assess their abilities in conjunction with the use of these tools. Such a development will entail a new conception of ability as an intellectual partnership between learners and the tools they use. Although some worry that this partnership makes learners too dependent upon the technology, many performances( e. g., instrumental music) are meaningless without the technologies which enable them. Allowing students to demonstrate learning in collaboration with cognitive tools may be attacked by parties invested in existing assessment systems. However, who would assess the ability of an artist without allowing the use of brushes, paint, and other media? Contemporary intellectual abilities should not be assessed without cognitive tools, including books and computers( Salomon et al., 1991). The very conception of knowledge is changing with a move from a conception of knowledge as possession of facts and figures to one of knowledge as the ability to retrieve information from databases and use it to solve problems( Simon, 1987).
Of course, there are many important intellectual abilities that should be performed and assessed without the aid of cognitive tools. This is where Salomon et al.' s( 1991) delineation of the learning effects of technology become so important:
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