Stephen Downes

Interesting. "Ability and talent should not be viewed as constructs possessed by individuals but, instead, as sets of relations that are actualized through dynamic transactions... classrooms should not be considered merely as the sites where talent development takes place, but should actually be conceptualized as the context for a specific cultural milieu through which students develop understandings of what constitutes a talented interaction."

See also: Principles of Self-Organization: "An ecological model, or a model based on a relational ontology, grounded in current principles of self-organizing or spontaneously ordered systems, contextualizes (ecologizes) the learning situation and not only better captures the world as it is, but, we suggest, also dramatically potentiates the learner-facilitator interaction." Note that I am not the only one to talk about Boltzmann systems in this context. More from Sasha Barab (who really needs an RSS feed). Thanks, Sean, for the link.