Resonating with distributed cognition

Since last class I’ve struggled to grasp what distributed cognition (DC) really is. How is distributed cognition different and/or connected with collaborative learning? Is collaborative learning a form of distributed cognition? Where do these concepts overlap? I found some hints on the web that distributed cognition is a prevalent theory in the field of computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL). So that’s a bit of an answer. I wonder though whether the field of traditional face-to-face collaborative learning takes into account distributed cognition.

The clearest explanation so far related to DC seems to be Hollan’s et al. (2001) (as cited by Glenberg, 2006) who lists the three main characteristics of distributed cognition:· Cognition can be distributed across the members of a social group (social distribution)· Cognition can be distributed between internal and external structures (material distribution)· Cognition can be distributed across time, with final products reflecting partial/ earlier products (temporal distribution)

Here http://www.slis.indiana.edu/faculty/yrogers/dist_cog/ I found that distributed cognition is not proposing the existence of a new cognitive process but it’s trying to reframe the understanding of cognition as situated in and spread across social contexts. So, DC is an alternative theoretical perspective in response to the traditional theory in the cognitive science which emphasizes the internal states/ cognitive process and neglects cognition as potentially happening outside of the individual’s head.

This theoretical shift from understanding cognition as a strictly internal process to conceiving it as a possible socially distributed process (from internalism to externalism) seems to (might) be linked to an epistemological turn from constructivism to social constructivism and social constructionism. Constructivism sees the individual making meaning of knowledge within social contexts. Social constructionism argues that knowledge is constructed through social interactions.

Other questions that pop into my head on this topic are: How does distributed cognition connect to discursive ways of knowing? If we look at cognition as a social/ interactional process, how is this similar or not to distributed cognition?