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Traces of Cognition as a Distributed Phenomenon in Networked Learning

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Networked Learning

Part of the book series: Research in Networked Learning ((RINL))

Abstract

In this chapter, I begin with historical and ongoing debates about the nature of cognition in relation to critical and humanistic traditions underpinning networked learning theory and practice. In this context, knowledge is not perceived a transmissible property that can be moved across a network from one person to another; rather, knowledge is viewed as emergent. I go on to trace points in the past decade where networked learning understandings of cognition have come to include sociomaterial perspectives that acknowledge the agencies of both human and non-human actors in knowledge emergence. In the following section on the conceptualizations of the human mind, I critically examine five contemporary perspectives: neuropsychological, environmentalist, phenomenological, situated sociocultural account, and mentalist. From a relational view, each of these perspectives can accommodate the proposition of cognition as a distributed phenomenon without becoming caught in the dualism of abstract mind and concrete material social practice. I conclude the chapter with positing distributed cognition as a unifying theoretical concept underpinning the political, ontological, and epistemological aspects of networked learning.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Curriculum Studies: Educational Technology and Design, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    Gale Parchoma

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  1. Gale Parchoma
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Correspondence to Gale Parchoma .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Design and Communication, University of Southern Denmark, Kolding, Denmark

    Nina Bonderup Dohn

  2. Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom

    Susan Cranmer

  3. Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom

    Julie-Ann Sime

  4. Department of Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

    Maarten de Laat

  5. Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Thomas Ryberg

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Parchoma, G. (2018). Traces of Cognition as a Distributed Phenomenon in Networked Learning. In: Bonderup Dohn, N., Cranmer, S., Sime, JA., de Laat, M., Ryberg, T. (eds) Networked Learning. Research in Networked Learning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74857-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74857-3_2

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74857-3

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