When and where should we be teaching students about their digital footprint? Part I

The two recommended readings for course 2 this week (March 16-22) — Your Online Reputation Can Hurt Your Job Search and Protect Your Digital Footprint — were a nice review and extension of what Jeff spoke about during our f2f of March 18. Although the essential question for the March 18 f2f, "When and where should we be teaching students about their digital footprint?", focuses on students' digital footprints and the 2 recommended readings focused on adults' (job-seeking adults') digital footprints, I found the readings valuable as my own knowledge of this topic prior to this course had been very limited so the review and limited extension were helpful. I like the second article's definition of a digital footprint, "...a compilation of everything that's on the internet about you...", as the use of 'compilation' and 'everything' and 'you' hit home with the message that all our actions (photos, blog postings, searches, comments, links, groups, email addresses, et. al.) on the Internet are permanent and freely available to anyone who searches for such information for any purpose. This public accessibility of information that most people feel to be private is unwelcome and invasive (and worrisome for some) but a reality that has to be shared, discussed and managed. As educators, I do feel that we need to be discussing and helping students manage their digital footprints in the classroom so that they can safely and confidently navigate, access and find a place for themselves in today's digital landscape. In terms of timing, as the first article stated, it's easier to "promote the positive" than to "remove the negative" and so developing an understanding of the concept of a digital footprint and the skills to manage it and reputations online should be addressed in schools when students first begin accessing the Internet and then repeated throughout their schooling so that an age-appropriate understanding and skill set is developed.

Both to address the week's essential question and to deepen my understanding of the topic, I used my Google reader account and a newly created a delicious tag 'digital footprint' RSS feed to search for information about students and when and where educators should be teaching students about their digital footprints, their online reputations and how (the weeks' enduring understandings)...

• Online behaviors and actions impact the access and safety of personal information.

• Responsible use of online tools can help protect the personal information of others.

Unfortunately, the delicious tag led me mostly to blogs which reiterated many of points from the two recommended readings and class so I turned to a 'traditional' Google search. I found three articles which begin to address the focused question of "When and where should we be teaching students about their digital footprint?" and that also provide new and useful information on the subject of digital footprints which could be shared with students and/or parents.

• You Are What You Post: dual emphasis on the role of parents and teachers in helping students learn about their digital footprints. Well-written article with some new information such as three fallacies the majority of kids believe about the Internet that can damage their online reputations:
  Myth #1: Setting an online profile to “private” allows control over who can see it.
  Myth #2: Deleting an e-mail, instant message (IM), video, photo, or profile comment erases it permanently from the Internet.
  Myth #3: Downloading, remixing, or copying content to use for a personal web page or to share with friends is legal.
  

• Your Child's Digital Footprint: emphasizes the roles of parents in helping students learn about their digital footprints and mentions that "some colleges now offer seminars about how to use Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites."

• Personal Branding Blog: discusses personal brands (See next paragraph) and states that "To start teaching them about personal branding in college may be too late..." and that "...we can expect social media classes to pop-up in even more schools. Teachers value these tools, especially when they are supported by the school...When teachers use social media tools for class projects and communications, then students will learn much easier, ..."

Everything I read online points to the need for adults (parents and/or teachers) to guide teenagers to understanding the nature of their digital footprint and how their actions online can both damage and enhance their and others' online reputations.

Finally, I would like to end with reference to our guest speaker Silvia Tolisano. I like the switch in emphasis Silvia brought to the topic of digital footprints and online reputations. While Silvia did discuss the need to protect your reputation online, more of her presentation was on the value of using today's digital landscape to create an online brand for yourself. It shifted the emphasis from the potential negative to the potential positive side of digital footprints and online reputations which was a good note on which to end our first class.