Roy Pea on Distributed Intelligence
On Practices of Distributed Intelligence and Designs for Learning By Roy Pea
Intelligence is distributed across minds, people and environments. Over time people have shared ideas through conversation and the use of designs and tools, notes and books and most recently the computer. Theorist Vygotsky, Simon, and Gibson considered questions about the distribution of intelligence between the world and the mind to be fundamental. Activities such as social interaction distribute intelligence. Things such as microwave ovens, thermometers, and yardsticks carry intelligence within them and distributed intelligence is dependent on desires. Pea’s interested in distributed intelligence was derived from his observation of the use of technology. Pea notes that our activities change the world thus the changing the way the world can change us. With the use of technology changes are global and fast paced and the goal of education should be to educate on how to learn. Education should change from students sitting passively by while teachers feed them information to students taking an active role in their education.
test Filed under Uncategorized | Tags: LRND 6820 | Comment (1)
12:50 am - 11-23-2010
I took note of Pea’s point about technology changing the world, us, and what’s important to learn, too. To be honest, this wasn’t one of the points that I was most interested in when I originally picked this article, but it popped out at me when I re-read it after the VoiceThread debates on whether or not Google is making us stupid. (Maybe part of the answer to that depends on how we define “smart” and “stupid,” and how changes in technology and culture influence who/what we see as intelligent.)
Hope this week is treating you better. Have a good Thanksgiving.