The following series of posts will attempt to answer the question: Does technology make us smarter? Following the lead of known scholars of educational technology, these posts will focus on the theory of distributed cognition and its relevance in the educational classroom. In order to do so, one must first discuss the background philosophy of distributed cognition and relevant definitions within the philosophy. This will be the concern of the first post.
Distributed cognition is a theory which states that intelligence is not formed solely in the individual mind, but “distributed across multiple systems, both human and artificial” (Martin, 2012). Through this theory of intelligence, one is able to explain the interrelationship between person and person, person and tool, person and technology, and so on. It allows one to think about the complex nature of thinking and learning. For, the individual human mind is never really able to be studied in isolation. Rather, it must be studied in its connections with the world around. With this in mind, there have been multiple studies and theories regarding how interactions with tools, signs, and technologies can impact thinking and learning (Salomon & Perkins, 2005). In order to investigate this thought, Salomon and Perkins created a three-way framework. This framework consists of effects with technology, effects of technology, and effects through technology.
Effects with technology refer to “how the use of technology often enhances intellectual performance”. Effects of technology is “how using a technology may leave cognitive residues that enhance performance even without the technology”. And effects through technology speaks of “how technology sometimes does not just enhance performance but fundamentally reorganizes it” (Solomon & Perkins, 2005). These all offer a type of relationship between the mind and tool (technology) and how it can affect cognition. When thinking of the long-term roles of technologies of the classroom these are extremely significant to keep in mind.
Another component of distributed cognition that must be covered here are the four pedagogical functions performed by technology in the educational field which Martin identifies. These four functions are: connection, translation, off-loading, and monitoring. These are all highlighted to support how distributed cognition theory supports the metaphor of learning as coordination. In this sense, learning is an organization of parts exchanged by one complex system to another. These functions serve as facilitators for this coordination process.
Connection is the most basic requirement for coordination as “it must be possible for information to pass between the systems…through shared connection to some sort of intermediary” (Martin, 2012). With this connection between the two systems, translation is possible as there is a “transformation of information from one representational system to another” (Martin, 2012). This allows for communication between the two systems to occur with a mutual understanding despite a difference in processing. Another function is offloading which “can be thought of as a change in the distribution of task and subtasks across systems” (Martin, 2012). This allows for less important, tedious tasks to be put on the technology while the cognitive focus of the student is of more priority. Finally, the last function is monitoring which refers to “assessing the quality of the coordination between systems and providing this information as feedback” (Martin, 2012). This ensures proper coordination amongst the different systems to enhance the cognitive development.
Maggie's Education Blog 