Computer-based cognitive tools have been intentionally adapted or developed to function as intellectual partners to enable and facilitate critical thinking and higher order learning. Examples of cognitive tools include: databases, spreadsheets, semantic networks, expert systems, communications software such as teleconferencing programs, on-line collaborative knowledge construction environments, multimedia/hypermedia construction software, and computer programming languages.
In the cognitive tools approach, media and technology are given directly to learners to use for representing and expressing what they know. Learners themselves function as designers using media and technology as tools for analyzing the world, accessing and interpreting information, organizing their personal knowledge, and representing what they know to others