As educators we should be aware of our digital footprint. It is so easy for future employers or our students to access the information we posted and may not realize is still available for everyone to see. This would be a negative way to look at our digital footprint.
But a digital footprint can be a good thing. When people, whether they be your future employer, students in your class or even the parents of those students, search your name it can have a positive impact on your career. Things such as a blog, or an information page or twitter can show up but if they hold interesting and resourceful information then its not such a bad thing for people to search you. A digital footprint is what you make it. You should always be careful of what you post, comment and search but it shouldn't stop you from exploring and enjoying the magic of the World Wide Web. To protect yourself look at security settings and don't be naive to the issues and threats that are out there and maybe think twice before doing anything that could put you at risk for losing a job or not gaining employment elsewhere.
So talking about a digital footprint, I decided to do a little Google search on me! And I didn't find much, although there are a lot of people out there with my name it took me a couple of pages to find information on myself. My twitter account came up, my Google+ account came up, and that was really it. I hope maybe in the future my blog will come up or other online resources that I plan to use for my career. And now its your turn to do a little research on yourself and see what your digital footprint may look like.
Have fun, and hopefully the information you find doesn't alarm you to much :)
-LB
"Long after you've shut off your computer, and left the digital world behind the information you've accessed lingers in the magical world of "the internet." Like stepping in wet concrete our digital footprint is often really tough to get rid of." What an excellent way to put this! You're right, what goes up must ..... will never come down.
ReplyDeleteI like your concrete analogy. I sometimes think of it this way:
ReplyDeleteIf the internet is a window to the wider world our digital footprint would be all the finger and nose prints we leave on the window pane while we look through. It's not something we ever even think of because it's generally invisible.