Digital Footprints



I love using short, student-friendly videos like this one to introduce the importance of taking care of your digital footprint. Today's students are fighting an uphill battle when it comes to protecting their image online. When they come to my classroom at 10-12 years old, typically a family member has already documented their every move on social media up to that point. Those potty-training pics might have been cute 10 years ago but for an adolescent, not so much. It is important that students recognize and understand that what they post, text, tweet, email, and comment on will follow them indefinitely.

How Your Digital Footprint Can Hurt You
      This article from the Huffington Post includes an awesome slide show of "7 Ways you might be Oversharing". Oversharing is a big problem for kids who are just starting to find their way on social media. Suddenly everyone can read and react to their opinions! I often see kids get themselves into uncomfortable situations because of posting comments that were "supposed to be funny". I can imagine adapting these slides into a more student-friendly format to use as a digital resource or classroom posters.

11 Tips for Students to Manage their Digital Footprints
      Similarly to the Huffington Post article, this article by Teach Thought includes a list of tips for students to know and remember as they leave their footprints throughout the web. I found these tips to be excellent conversation starters for teachers. I know that the language here would be at an inappropriate level for my students, but loved the scope of digital tools covered and the clear rationale behind each "tip".






Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 14, 2017 at 11:10 AM

    Hi Carly, Thanks for sharing the Searched video. I have seen it before and it's great for younger kids. I have added it to the resources for the Digital Footprint assignment. Also, can you add it to the Padlet for this assignment? Here is the link https://padlet.com/dklier/a0whz77rftgf - somehow it was not on the assignment page. Thanks. Debbie

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ms. SmithJuly 14, 2017 at 5:39 PM

    Thanks Debbie- I knew I was missing something from the directions! I'll add it now :o)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Karen McGrathJuly 17, 2017 at 12:01 PM

    Carly- Awesome points! Students don't seem to understand that "sense of humor" does not always translate online! & Parents do not understand about protecting their children's privacy! As educators, we obviously have a lot of work to do! Thanks for posting the video link!

    ReplyDelete

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