The foundations for using software as cognitive tools in education are:
• Cognitive tools will have their greatest effectiveness when they are applied within constructivist learning environments.
• Cognitive tools empower learners to design their own representations of knowledge rather than absorbing representations preconceived by others.
• Cognitive tools can be used to support the deep reflective thinking that is necessary for meaningful learning.
• Cognitive tools have two kinds of important cognitive effects, those which are with the technology in terms of intellectual partnerships and those that are of the technology in terms of the cognitive residue that remains after the tools are used.
• Cognitive tools enable mindful, challenging learning rather than the effortless learning promised but rarely realized by other instructional innovations.
• The source of the tasks or problems to which cognitive tools are applied should be learners, guided by teachers and other resources in the learning environment.