Posing the Why: Digital Tools and Cognitive Modeling

Sometimes the biggest hurdle to implementing technology in the classroom becomes the technology itself. Teachers become overwhelmed with the logistics of: getting access to working tools, preparing to effectively use them (often through their own play and construction of the desired outcome), planning the implementation process, structuring class time, and managing how to provide support, mentorship, and scaffolding to keep students moving through the technical challenges that will arise. With all of these considerations in mind, it can often be far too easy to overlook the more important question of why?

Why use this tool? What are the benefits or advantages offered? How does this tool capitalize on the demands of the learning objective? Why select this path over another, and how do you critically make selections to repurpose and combine tools within the context of one project?
We might consider how apprenticeship provides an opportunity to introduce complex processes and provide guided practice for beginners. Such an instructional model aligns well with the types of learning needed to master new technology tools. This model is also closely correlated to the Gradual Release of Responsibility, where the responsibility shifts from expert to apprentice through coaching and mentorship.
​
However, I wonder if we might also pay equal focus to the importance of cognitive apprenticeship–modeling the thinking processes we undergo as experts in navigating these decision-making processes. This might appear similar to the ways in which English teachers conduct read-alouds (or think-alouds) where the teacher makes visible the typically invisible process of reading by modeling the use of cognitive strategies that expert readers engage in while reading. Applying this strategy to the context of learning with digital tools might help to bridge the gap of critical inquiry into our reasons for and applications of producing with digital tools. These are the types of questions and active critiques students need to develop in their own consumption of digital media and fostering such a perspective might begin here in the act of cognitive apprenticeship–useful for not just teaching tools but teaching thinking about the tools we choose to engage with.