Leveraging Distributed Intelligence

"The mind" rarely works alone. Distributed intelligence refers to the perspective that intelligence is not best depicted as a trait of individual minds but as distributed across the people, material and digital tools available in socio-technical systems. Once we closely inspect it, we find intelligence to be an achievement that comes to life in human activities, accomplished rather than possessed. Join us for a free webinar with 2022 McGraw Prize winner in Learning Science Research Dr. Roy Pea (David Jacks Professor of Education & Learning Sciences at Stanford University), a pioneer in the field, whose work has been instrumental in pulling back the curtain on how and why people learn.

In this discussion moderated by Dr. Yasmin B. Kafai, Lori and Michael Milken President’s Distinguished Professor at Penn GSE, Pea will examine the implications of distributed intelligence for the design of educational systems, learning technologies, and the conduct of everyday life. 

Dr. Roy Pea Bio: 

Dr. Roy Pea’s work to enhance learning for people of all backgrounds and circumstances has been propelled by a spirit of innovation, impact and leadership lauded by the McGraw Prize. Pea is the David Jacks Professor of Education & Learning Sciences at the School of Education at Stanford University, where he also was the director of the H-STAR Institute and co-director and co-principal investigator of the LIFE Center. Pea’s body of work is vast; he has built training programs in learning technology and design at universities, created research partnerships, and developed professional development programs for teachers and K–12 learning technologies. He is a past president of the International Society for the Learning Sciences and co-author of the 2010 National Education Technology Plan for the U.S. Department of Education.

Dr. Yasmin Kafai Bio: 

Yasmin B. Kafai is a learning scientist and designer of online tools and communities to promote coding, crafting, and creativity across grades K–16. Her work empowers students to use computer programming to design games, sew electronic textiles, and grow applications in biology with the goal of supporting creative expression, building social connections, and broadening participation in computing. She helped develop with MIT colleagues the popular programming tool Scratch—known as the YouTube of interactive media—where millions of kids create and share their programs. With her pioneering research on children’s learning when programming digital games, she was an early contributor to the field of serious gaming. Currently, she is developing a high school curriculum with electronic textiles that introduces students to computer science. She is also creating new fabrication tools and activities that bring biomaking into classrooms. She has written and edited books for MIT Press in addition to several national policy reports. Her award-winning work has received generous funding from the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation.