The Paradoxical Art of Designing for Emergence

Abstract

This chapter explores the role of digital technologies in collaborative open space learning programs developed at Northern Beaches Christian School in Sydney, Australia. The chapter begins by recounting the role of an in-house innovation incubator called Sydney Centre for Innovation in Learning in nurturing a school philosophy that values emergent interactivity, and offers justification for this philosophy using Self-Determination Theory. It describes a number of ensuing open space learning designs, making specific reference to the practical use of digital technologies. The chapter concludes by proposing ecological design language that interprets structures in physical, virtual, and cultural space by their ability to facilitate emergent, unscripted interactions between people, their environment, and information. It emphasizes the paradoxical importance of linearity, constraint, and expert teaching in learning designs that set the scene for emergence to occur.