Hi Jenny,
I have been reading and thinking about "emergence", "complexity" and "design". To begin to explore your great question "can we design for emergent learning"? I stumbled upon this website on complexity and emergence. The author suggests that there might be different forms of "emergence" in relation to complexity and if this is the case then perhaps there are design opportunities. The tension for me in terms of design is "who" is doing the designing and what is the intention of the design? In this seminar I am finding myself having to really explore the foundamental concepts and figure out how these fit for me. I lean towards the natural metaphor but having said this, when humans attempt to "design" natural phenomenon we often get into trouble. But, if I begin to think of "emergence" and "emergent learning" as something that bubbles up through networks and different configurations of people, then I can see designing situations and intentially new affilitations where new knowledges and perhaps learning might emerge.
some very preliminary thoughts from me on your very important "design" question : )
cheers,
Barb