Hi Barb and Phillip - thanks for your interesting comments here. My thinking in relation to this is that you can't design for emergent learning, which by it's very nature is unpredictable - but you can design 'spaces', 'learning environments' which might be conducive to emergent learning.
That's what we've been trying to do with our research - not design these environments oursleves, but explore with others what the factors might be that would contribute to such a space or learning environment.
Hi Barb - "footprints" as mitigating artifacts for emergence" - Wow - that's a thought and fits with the discussion on how social media influence research - that is going on in the Networked Learning Conference Hotseat at the moment - http://networkedlearningconference.ning.com/forum/categories/encoded-researchers-pedagogies-and-other-posthuman-concoctions/listForCategory
Ah Deidre - Cognitive Dissonance - this seems very significant in relation to emergent learning and I'm wondering whether it is implicitly covered by the factors we consider when drawing the footprints - or whether it is missing. We should hold that in mind when we draw footprints in Tuesday's webinar. Thanks for the thought.
Hi Roy - I'm struggling with the idea of intentionality in relation to emergent learning, in the same way as designing for emergent learning feels contradictory, and George Siemens' desire to create a conceptual framework for evaluating MOOCs (http://momentum.edthemes.org/about-mooc-jam/) feels contrary to the whole notion of openness in MOOCs.
I suspect that I have misunderstood what we are meaning by intentionality in this discussion, but it has certainly given me lots to think about!
Hi Joyce - I have been thinking about your post since I first read it. Whilst I have often see the chick emerging from an egg used as an illustration of emergence (I have used it myself!), when I read your post and comments about intentionality (I know that there are mosre posts about this that I have yet to catch up with) - it didn't fit with my existing thinking about emergent learning. I have been trying to sort out in my head why this is so.
I still don't think I am clear about this - and I need to read through all the other posts, but I'm wondering whether emergent actions or emergent experience (which have been mentioned in the assessment thread) are the same thing as emergent learning. Not sure whether I've completely lost the plot here! Thanks for making me think!