My name is Pauliina Rikala and I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Education. I have a Ph.D. in Mathematical Information Technology, and my dissertation focused on mobile learning in a Finnish formal educational context. My multidisciplinary background combines Information Technology, Pedagogy, Social Gerontology, Psychology, and Marketing. My current research focuses on how digitalization creates friction in everyday work and learning. These frictions include hidden work, cognitive load, emotional strain, skill gaps, organizational tensions, and mismatches between technological expectations and real practices. I study how these multilayered pressures influence human agency, competence development, and well‑being in digitalized environments.
I study how digitalization creates friction in work and learning, such as hidden labor, cognitive load, emotional strain, skill gaps, and organizational tensions. My goal is to understand how digitalization can be developed in humane, meaningful, and sustainable ways.
