I have proudly and fastidiously been monitoring my digital footprint since 2012. I had heard of digital footprints before this, but an important moment was at a session that I attended at the 21st Century Learning Conference. The session leader had ‘googled’ all participants solely based on the email address that they had provided to the conference. She began the session by playing a video of snippets of what she found out about us. It was eye-opening! (Though I was lucky, even at that point, to have a secure and professional online appearance.)
Since then, I am aware of privacy setting within apps and web 2.0 tools I use, and I Google myself once a month.
I know that many people prefer to have dual accounts as teachers. One for their personal life and one for their professional life but I am not in the habit of doubling up on all accounts (too many passwords to remember!), so I use one account only and consciously post knowing the various audiences that may view my posts.
Since I am currently teaching Grade 2, there is not too much talk of digital footprint yet. Students usually have adult (teacher and parent) created accounts to educational websites rather than self-subscribed. The focus is more on cybersafety and cyberbullying.
When I was teaching middle school, previously, for the past four years, digital footprints were relevant. I like the UBC Digital Tattoo resources and the metaphor of online activity as permanent as a tattoo. In the future, if I am teaching older students again, I hope to use the UBC resources.
UBC Digital tattoo. Retrieved from http://digitaltattoo.ubc.ca/?login