Jonassen et al. introduce the concept on mindtools in Meaningful Learning with Technology. These are tools that don't necessarily make learning easier, but they help students think more deeply. They are constructivist tools that are flexible and have specifically not been developed to be teacher-proof or student-proof. Mindtools help facilitate meaning-making as students focus on building a credible model, rather than solving the problem. One of the most powerful aspects of mindtools is model building, which is a natural cognitive phenomenon. When we encounter something new, we start to build personal theories (models) to explain it. Students use their own background knowledge to construct models. The models can subsequently be used for "hypothesis testing, conjecturing, inferring, and a host of other important cognitive skills." e routinely Student teach the computer what they know and, in turn, externalize their mental models. Even databases can be mindtools as information to be stored must be standardized into records and records interrelated. The information scheme can be thought of matrices with indexes to locate information. The database can also be used as a repository for other people's experiences. "Because we remember so much of what we know in the form of stories. Stories are rich, powerful formalisms for storing and describing memories. Thus, one way of understanding what people know is to analyze their stories. Databases are a primary tool for doing that."
Sample mindtools examples include:
- Modeling relationships. This can be done visually using concept maps or as part of a simulation using special simulation software (Stella, VenSim, PowerSim, Model-It) or a spreadsheet.
- Analyzing and hypothesis testing. This can be done by organizing the data in a spreadsheet, along with generating rules for modeling.
- Story Retrieval. Websites like Flickr and Delicious are mindtools because their metadata (tags, user names, GPS coordinates, popularity, dates, etc.) aids retrieval and reminds us of the context or story.
References
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