A Glance into Social and Evolutionary Aspects of an Artifact Ecology for Collaborative Learning through the Lens of Distributed Cognition

ABSTRACT

There is steadily growing interest in the design and evaluation of digitally enhanced spaces in the real-world where users use, combine, and appropriate different physical and digital tools based on the task at hand. Under the notion of “ubiquitous computing,” researchers have explored tools and theories to analyze, understand, and model users in complex socio-technical systems. Yet, even though theoretical approaches play a significant role in the work of practitioners, there is a general difficulty in applying them, pushing researchers to explore methodological frameworks with clearer guidelines. Using the distributed cognition for teamwork (DiCoT) framework, we study collaboration and communication patterns, physical movement, and social structures of two groups of learners working on a design problem as they evolve over a 3-month period. Through an in-depth investigation, we present detailed accounts of the social and evolutionary models of DiCoT for each group. Our analysis enriches the DiCoT framework by identifying five new principles: social emersion and social circles of privacy for the social model, and continuity, mutual adaptation, and semantics of body for the evolutionary model. This article contributes to HCI research by refining and extending the existing DiCoT framework and elaborating on two dimensions that have previously been under-developed in the literature.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christina Vasiliou

Christina Vasiliou is a PhD candidate at Cyprus Interaction Lab, Cyprus University of Technology. She holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Cyprus and MSc in Human-centered Interactive Technologies from the University of York (UK). Her research activities focus on designing and evaluating collaboration spaces and interactive technologies.

Andri Ioannou

Andri Ioannou is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts at the Cyprus University of Technology. She received her PhD in Educational Technology from the University of Connecticut. Her research interests include the design and evaluation of technology for learning, collaboration, and decision making.

Agni Stylianou-Georgiou

Agni Stylianou-Georgiou is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education at the University of Nicosia. She holds a PhD degree in Educational Psychology (Cognition and Instruction with specialization in Educational Technology) from the University of Connecticut. Her research interests are focused on studying learning in online and face-to-face settings.

Panayiotis Zaphiris

Panayiotis Zaphiris is a Professor at the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts of the Cyprus University of Technology. He is also the Dean of School of Fine and Applied Arts and co-director of the Cyprus Interaction Lab specializing in the areas of Human–Computer Interaction and Instructional Technology.