This document outlines an upcoming workshop on distributed cognition in socio-technical systems. The workshop will: 1) Explain the processes distributed cognition models and discuss critical issues. 2) Have groups use the distributed cognition model to elaborate on the services needed for future socio-technical systems like smart cities, artificially enhanced societies, and sustainable schools. 3) Discuss what HCI methods can collect data to inform distributed cognition research and what data flows need to be created.

1. DHT.5.0
Workshop: Distributed cognition
in socio-technical systems
Kai Pata
7.05.2017, Pärnu
15.00-17.00

2. Aims of the workshop
• What processes does distributed cognition model explain? What are
critical issues?
• In groups: To elaborate with distributed cognition model what
services needed are future socio-technical systems. Groups explain
future socio-technical systems using distributed cognition model:
• Smart adaptive co-creative city
• Artificially enhanced society
• Sustainable digitally enhanced school
• What HCI methods can be used for collecting data to feed distributed
cognition inspired research? What data flows must be created?

3. Distributed cognition
• Distributed cognition approach (Hollan et al., 2000; Järvilehto, 1998;
Clark & Chalmers, 1998; Oeberst et al., 2016) sees cognitive activities
inhering in social practices and tools and artifacts used in those
practices, cognition is being extended to the environment where
hybrid network of external and internal entities as a coupled system
takes active part of it.

4. Distributed cognition model: enculturation
Pata & Bardone, 2014

5. Ley, Seitlinger, Pata, 2016
Distributed cognition model in semantic systems
Individual cognitive stabilization
co-occurs with enculturation
processes.
Artifact-mediated activity leads to
the formation and stabilization of
individual patterns.
Collective stabilization is a result
of individual pattern formation
and artifact-mediated social
feedback.

6. Distributed cognition model in informal learning in
digitally enhanced work spaces
Knowledge is actively mediated between
epistemic and collective levels by
interrelated maturation practices for
cultural knowledge focusing on the
“inside-out” development of knowledge,
and scaffolding practices focusing on the
“outside-in”
development of knowledge by guiding
individuals to cultural knowledge where
individuals with expertise
or authority, social peer-groups, artifacts
or emergent socio-technical scaffolds
(e.g. measures of trust,
validity) play a central role
Pata, 2016

7. Socio-technical system definition
• Socio-technical system is an open system where self-organized users
conduct collective operational tasks and the system undertakes the
operational delivery of task objectives using the co-optimized social
and technical sub-systems for task performance (Maquire, 2014)
• Socio-technical systems provide services using the collective
intelligence of its prosumers.

8. Case 1: Smart adaptive environment
• Smartness - Smartness – directedness to successive changes
• Adaptiveness and fitness of humans to smart environment
• Giovanella, C. (2014) : The smartness or attractiveness of an ecosystem does
not depend exclusively on its ability to run “all gears” in an effective and
efficient manner. It, rather, depends on its ability to create an environment
able to meet the individuals’ basic needs and keep them in a state of positive
tension in which their skills are stimulated by adequate challenges, to favor
the achievement of the self-realization (that is a Flow state)

9. Case 2: Artificially enhanced society
• Intercultural learning across agents
• Brain-Artificial intelligence, brain-
to-brain interactions
Cross-species brain-to- brain interactions, neural
privacy, loss of identity, coersion, persons’ conscious
agency, data protection and misuse, hacking to brains,
collective manipulation

10. Case 3: Sustainable and reactive to societal
changes digitally enhanced school
• School has to prepare kids for
living in AI improved society
• Effectiveness of resources
and approaches
• Sustainability of digital
innovation in schools
• Overproduction and waste of
human resources, learning
resources, apps, tools

11. Task
• In groups: elaborate with distributed cognition model what services
needed are future socio-technical systems. Groups explain future
socio-technical systems using distributed cognition model:
• Smart adaptive co-creative city
• Artificially enhanced society
• Sustainable digitally enhanced school
• What HCI methods can be used for collecting data to feed distributed
cognition inspired research? What data flows must be created?