Roy Williams

Syvia, invitating and welcoming works for me.  It is indeed more then 'simply being available' - its inviting people to enter into a relationship, a dance, a conversation, a mutual silence (add to taste ...) 

The critical threshold for a Montessori 'Directress' as well as a Montessori parent is to welcome, show, and then to step back and put your hands behind your back, and shut up, so that the learner can figure out if the invitation and welcome articulates with what they need at that point in their own development (or not), and get on with it (all happens intuitively and implicitly if the welcome is open enough). Some people (Directresses and parents) find this almost impossible to do. 

An open welcome also welcomes a 'no thank you' response - as and important part of learning. The young bird in your picture might not be so lucky!

Sylvia, OK ... If you are looking for, and open to, surprises ...  

• where it happens - an empirical question - observe, describe, ask for stories, narratives, visualisations, mind-maps. 
• 'where' it happens - where there are some of the following present and available: 
  • (closed) learning objects with instruction 
  • (open) learning objects with intention and an invitation to explore [these two options are from a discussion thread elsewhere in this forum, and are work in progress - might be too rough at this stage]
• 'it' - cognitive, embodied, affective, ontological, professional, social, etc, or all of the above. 
• 'how it happens' - risky and challenging (see the bird on the left) comfortalbe (the bird on the right) etc - all of which depend on the context, and just how high the roof is that they are standing on, whether there is a cat below, etc. 
• 'who' is learning, who is the intended learner, is there an intended learner/s? - you might refer to The Pope sat on the Chair pictures: 

and you can refer to the analyses, here ...

• with or without instruction, modelling, demonstration 
• 'learning' - run out of ideas here - maybe later ...

Barb, the oil droplet has only occured to me in this forum for the first time ...  

Its elasticity and flow appeals to me, and I like 'situativity' - a 'fluid kind of fit', no?  Also strikes me that you only get to see your footprint in detail once you have stepped onwards (in time and space) - you cant see it immediately, and you have to proceed (on trust/ at risk) in order to see how you 'fitted' into the situation (or not) retrospectively. Rich stuff indeed.

Emergence is taken from ecology (physical and biological), which is in turn based on complexity theory (or more specifically complex adaptive systems theory CAST), which emphasise the mutual adaptation of agency and situtation/context.

In ecology (and evolution / de-volution), mutation (chance variation, in the form of serendipitous mistakes - and they are not always positive) are a key aspect of what drives change and adaptation/ extinction.  So evolution is based on risk; you cant evolve if you make no mistakes, literally, at the level of miosis. 

That implies an entanglement between risk and emergence, and emergence and learning. And that means that if learning is about accepting change, adaptation and risk, you have to trust something - your instincts, you intuitions, your community, your peers, mentors, or all of the above.

Its foolish to dance on the edge of chaos on your own (and its much more fun to do it with a friend or two). 

And, yes, if emergence is based on mistakes, variation, risk and trust, quite a lot of it will be unpredictable, so what you design for is the possibility of emergence, you cant manage it, or specify it in a set of required 'outcomes' - that's beyond paradox, its just a contradiction.

In affordances terms, you design for affordances to be as open as possible - and social media provide the communication and interactivity means and modes to produce open affordances.  Affordances?  (See here ... if you want to read more - start with the two diagrams if you want a short cut). 

Jenny, me too - I was rather shocked by the introduction of 'intentionality' - it seemed like it was introducing determinism (even if tacit) and predictability (of sorts) into emergence. 

However, I have become fascinated by it, probably because there is lots of work on affordances which talks of objects (and spaces) as being designed with intentionality.  Example, a chair is intended to be sat on (doesn't limit the affordances, but it does 'start the conversation' about how it can be used), and a lift in a building is intended to be safe.  

So 'learning objects' and 'learning spaces' might be intended for openness, or for compliance (and that might limit or channel the affordances to some extent).  In the footprints, where you are - where you start, where you come in (or are invited to come in) to a learning space might push or pull you into certain affordances (scary, comfortable, liminal, etc) - and choice is such a key part of openness (see Stephen Downes autonomy) that you should be able to choose different, or even new uses and affordances in an open learning space. 

I too am not certain that I will be comfortable with a 'strong' sense of intentionality in emergence, but I am very interested in exploring is here - at least for a while. 

Jenny, emergent learning, emergent actions, emergent experience (and all of the above) - wow. Food for thought ... 

If I try this on the 2 Popes 2 Chairs case study (see here ... )

• Pope 2 is involved in an emergent action - who knows what the reaction will be, he doesnt, really, but I dont think he cares. 
• Pope 1 is also involved in an action, and I dont think he cares about learning in the same way - he cares about consolidating tradition (which might be a different kind of lesson) 
• Pope 2's  change of chairs will be a learning experience for both Popes, and for many cardinals too (past, present, and those with Papal aspirations for the future) 
• The Church, the public, the media - many people will be learning different things, or dismissing it as a stunt, and not a learning experience at all - they wont see it as a learning event. 
• Chair 2 might just be another chair (the first one has been taken away for a re-gilting job), so it might be a non-event ...