complex/ity

Part of the many balances that one needs to maintain in online learning and in good web practice in general, is the balance between structure and exploration, or the interesting, rather risky ground between chaos and order, where new relationships and ideas emerge.

One way of getting hold of this risky area (or interesting lilly pad, if you take my metaphor) is to use Snowden's distinction between what is complex (and orderly) and complexity (which is more open, less predictable).

Dave Pollard has some very interesting things to say about this, in relation to learning and to 'web2', and also a neat diagram of Dave Snowden's schema. Worth a look if you want to explore the application of complexity theory to learning.

Roy