Long a plague to teachers, cell phones and social media are now being used as an innovative teaching aide in some classrooms.

Enrique Legaspi, a teacher in East L.A., said that he has been able to engage shy students by encouraging them to tweet their questions or feedback onto a “digital chalkboard.”

“People talk to me now,” one student who felt his tweets helped him stand out said.

Watch the clip, embedded courtesy of CNN, below.

(h/t: GOOD)