Simpletribes

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FROM INFORMATION TO KNOWLEDGE

“We are living in a Knowledge society, in which connectivity allows us to access all kind of information at unprecedented speed and in multiple format” (Michelle Selinger – Executive Advisor Education – Cisco Systems)
Connectivity is our present and our future: young people know that and are used to living in a digital, web-based world in which they are constantly in contact with other people and communicating via emails, SMS text messaging, chats, etc. They are also naturally multitasking and able to write an email while watching TV, listening to music, etc.

However, the way we get information raises several issues concerning its quantity and quality.

We are being overloaded with an incredible amount of information, from which it seems difficult to select what we are looking for. Besides, not always can we immediately assess the value of the information we get. Young people in particular tend to move from one screen to another, whether it is a TV screen to a PC screen, without making great distinction between them: at the same time the differences between virtual reality and non-virtual reality seem to be less definite, the boundaries between fiction or game and reality are less clear, so that it may become nearly impossible to separate them.

In this scenario the main task of school is to teach learners to:

• locate relevant information and judge the credibility of sources,
• become experts learners,
• learn how to think critically.

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Educate your tribe to help them see things in ways they never imagined. Use simple concepts to help them understand complicated ones. Break things down and explain what is under the hood. They’ll be forever grateful someone took the time to do this for them!

“There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other wings”

- Hodding Carter

Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams or tribes, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team or tribe is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement. Students work through the assignment until all group or tribe members successfully understand and complete it.

Cooperative efforts result in participants striving for mutual benefit so that all group or tribe members:

• gain from each other’s efforts. (Your success benefits me and my success benefits you.)

• recognize that all group or tribe members share a common fate. (We all sink or swim together here.)

• know that one’s performance is mutually caused by oneself and one’s team or tribe members. (We can not do it without you.)

• feel proud and jointly celebrate when a group or tribe member is recognized for achievement. (We all congratulate you on your accomplishment!).