Keynote Speaker

Dr. Marcela Borge is an associate professor of Learning, Design, and Technology at the Pennsylvania State University. Her work centers on understanding collaborative sense-making—how people think together, solve complex problems, and develop shared expertise—and how technology supports or hinders these processes. Through detailed analyses across the lifespan and in both lab and real-world settings, she has identified communication patterns that promote high-quality, collective reasoning. Her research also explores how technologies can magnify both the strengths and the weaknesses of human collaboration, raising important ethical and cultural questions about their use. Dr. Borge argues that higher-order collective thinking is essential for innovation, complex problem-solving, and civic engagement, yet remains undervalued in most educational settings.

In this talk, she will draw on her research to examine how our current sociopolitical climate—shaped by social media and digital platforms—is affecting the ways people make sense of information together. She will challenge us to consider whether we are adequately preparing future generations with the critical sense-making and digital literacy skills needed to address the complex challenges of a globalized, technologically-driven world.