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Manon Van Hoorebeke: a Digital Girl on a mission at Mobile Learning Week
Manon Van Hoorebeke, 12, has two dreams; to get more girls interested in technology and get more technology taught in schools.
Manon, from Belgium, who was named European Digital Girl of the Year in 2014, took part in UNESCO鈥檚 flagship ICT in education event Mobile Learning Week as part of a panel discussing Improving Pedagogy and the relevance of learning on 10 March, 2016.
In an interview after the event Manon spoke about how she first learned to code at the age of seven and how now she wants to get more girls to understand the huge and creative possibilities of technology.
Her interest began when she went along to a free learning club, CoderDojo in Belgium, part of a global movement of volunteer-led programming clubs for young people aged 7 to 17.
Coding is fun
鈥淚 really liked it because it was fun, you could do your own stuff, it wasn鈥檛 like school or studying and it was really creative. At the end you could say 鈥榯his is something I made for myself,鈥欌 she said.
She began using the programme Scratch and was soon able to design her own games which she describes as 鈥渁 bit like Pacman and Mario Brothers.鈥
She noticed, though, that there were far fewer girls than boys in the club and later, when she presented her coding skills at school, girls were interested but reluctant.
鈥淚f you say 鈥榯echnology鈥 to girls often they say it鈥檚 only for boys or it鈥檚 only about war games but it鈥檚 not only that. It鈥檚 really creative so whatever you are interested in you can use coding. If you like shoes maybe you can design shoes with lights in or you can design clothes,鈥 she said.
Digital Girl of the Year
She decided she wanted to help more girls become interested and began to coach at the club using the programme Arduino to coach other children and particularly girls.
Since then her work has been recognised by the award and she has also taken part in the Girls in Tech event in Paris in 2015, has spoken at the European Parliament and delivered a Ted Talk in Ghent. She talks about her life and experiences on her blog .
She would also like to see more teaching of technology in schools. 鈥淎t my school the teacher only has one computer and we don鈥檛 really get much time to use it,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 can learn something so much quicker and better if I can do it myself.鈥
Next step: 鈥楬ackerspace鈥
Her next project is to open her own 鈥渉ackerspace鈥, a place where girls can go and learn about the variety of ways in which technology can be used and about the interesting career paths it can open up.
And she is thinking about designing her own dream app so that girls could instantly access information about technology in a friendly and supportive way.
When asked what UNESCO could do to help more girls become involved with science and technology she says: 鈥淯NESCO is all over the world. You just have to make sure girls know about technology and how to get into it from a very young age. They need to learn it at school from the very beginning.鈥
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