Once upon a time there was a teacher who couldn’t find her students in the classroom: “Physically they were there, but mentally they were far away in another world.” The teacher, who loved to learn from her students, gradually gave them the confidence to share their world with her. She was fascinated by what she discovered: “I started discovering a student who was shy and quiet, in the digital world was a gamer, a creator, an influencer… So, I started linking this to my teaching.” Today, her students call her Miss Twitter or the “networked teacher”. Marcela is delighted with this and has made the classroom a place where digital technology, especially social networks, is part of her daily teaching practice. How does she do it? “By example. Showing them that it is possible to exist positively in a networked world.” Because “if we generate skills from the classroom, with the support from parents and institutions, we will ensure that our children and youngsters can take advantage of the infinite possibilities of this digital era.”
At the ProFuturo Observatory, we talked to Marcela Momberg, the networked teacher, about digital citizenship, the skills it requires, her pedagogical strategies for integrating social networks into the classroom, digital orphans (a concept she has coined and developed in a book) and the most pressing challenges that teachers must face in their day-to-day work. Would you like to know what she told us? Don’t miss this video!
