Innovative socio-technical environments in support of distributed intelligence and lifelong learning G. Fischer* & S. Konomi*† *Center for LifeLong Learning and Design (L 3 D), University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA †Center for Spatial Information Science (CSIS), University of Tokyo, Meguro-Ku, Tokyo, Japan Abstract Individual, unaided human abilities are constrained. Media have helped us to transcend bound- aries in thinking, working, learning and collaborating by supporting distributed intelligence. Wireless and mobile technologies provide new opportunities for creating novel socio-technical environments and thereby empowering humans, but not without potential pitfalls. We explore these opportunities and pitfalls from a lifelong-learning perspective and discuss how wireless and mobile technologies can influence and change conceptual frameworks such as the relation- ship between planning and situated action, context awareness, human attention, distances in collaborative design activities, and the trade-off between tools for living and tools for learning. The impact of wireless and mobile technologies is illustrated with our research projects, which focus on moving ‘computing off the desktop’ by ‘going small, large, and everywhere’. Specific examples include human-centred public transportation systems, collaborative design, and information sharing with smart physical objects. Keywords context awareness, distributed intelligence, human attention, lifelong learning, situated action, wireless and mobile technologies. Introduction A fundamental challenge for research in computer science, cognitive science, and the learning sciences is to understand thinking, learning, working and colla- borating by exploiting the power of omnipotent and omniscient technology based on reliable, ubiquitous wireless and mobile computing environments (Pea 2004). New ways of thinking and new educational approaches are needed to address the design of socio- technical environments (Mumford 1987). We need to understand what tasks should be reserved for educated human minds and the collaboration among different human minds, and what tasks can and should be taken over or aided by cognitive artifacts. In such an information-rich world, the true power comes not from more information, but from information that is person- ally meaningful, relevant to people’s concerns and relevant to the task at hand. The impact of wireless and mobile technology (WMT) on future education cannot simply be measured as tools that facilitate existing learning practices. We need to take a deeper look into social practices in the discourse of pedagogical mobile applications (Roschelle 2003). Through the discussions on key con- ceptual frameworks and our experiences with three types of wireless and mobile applications, we shed light on fundamental issues that arise as WMT influences and changes the context and the goals of education Accepted: 20 February 2007 Correspondence: Shin’ichi Konomi, Institute of Industrial Science, Ew-601, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1, Komaba, Meguro-Ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan. Email: konomi@csis.u-tokyo.ac.jp doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2729.2007.00238.x SPECIAL ISSUE Original article 338 © 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Journal of Computer Assisted Learning (2007), 23, 338–350