Raft of Concepts

Today I learned a new metaphor for difficult concepts:

“Conceptually, […] is a raft of connected  concepts, ranging from […] to” (Stephen Downes)

I like this metaphor since it visualizes that concepts are not merely nodes on a concept map, not abstract-symbolic dots, or neat circles, but that connections between them play a crucial role.

Also the raft metaphor reminds me of Roy, Simone & Jenny’s  Footprints that can be pictured as multiple parallel sliders for multiple factors of emergent learning, each ranging from prescriptive to edgy/ scary/ lost. Only when all of  these sliders are taken together (tied together to form a raft) we can learn how emergent learning is emerging.

Some, however, take exactly the multiplicity of factors and features, the  dozens of dichotomies, as indicator that such a theory must be false.