to discriminate between 'well designed' Montessori materials, and (mere) 'learning objects'.
this has always seemed to me the key to the work we do, it is not a question of objects, but of carefully anticipated processes, that each require differing degrees of intevention and mediation
looking at it from this perspective, within contexts where we are charged with the responsibility of "making learning happen", emergent learning is just part of a range of mediation options, in which the mediator sets up a framework in which learning emerges, and then follows certain patterns in many cases...
it sounds churlish to say it, this is nothing new...we should be addressing the reasons why we have to keep saying it..