Hi everyone - my head is spinning with all the ideas that are coming out of these forums.
Just to let everyone know, but Phillip and Nick in particular (whom I have quoted) - I have just written and published a blog post about how the discussions here relate to other discussions I have been having this week - See http://jennymackness.wordpress.com/2013/11/23/lassoing-the-coltish-concepts-of-emergent-learning-and-moocs/ Credit for the title goes to Nick :-)
I am still trying to digest everything that has been posted, but if we are coming to the conclusion that emergent learning can't be 'lassoed '- then how do we, in concrete terms recognise/value it - or don't we need to?