What Kind of Digital Footprint Are You Leaving?

Whenever we go online, we leave a mark, a footprint. How do we control that mark and protect our privacy? How do we help our students create a positive footprint and maintain their privacy? This is a very involved topic, but we can look at some beginnings here.

InCtrl suggests the following questions to ask when working online, desktop or iPad: what’s the message you want to convey, what’s the best tool for doing it, what are the best techniques to use in creating that message, who is your audience. We explored some of these same questions in our Fall discussions exploring the “How” and how to choose a tool.

Protecting privacy is important for our students and ourselves. When you sign up for a reward program or an email lists, use a separate email from your personal one. Always logout of sites. Vary your passwords; there are apps and tools to help maintain your passwords or even create random ones for you. When you use any app or site that requires a student account, send me that information.

Have you googled yourself lately? Do you want to know how to affect your search results, how to have some control in what appears? Check and adjust your privacy settings on all of your personal social media accounts. On anything more public, like Twitter, LinkedIn or your website, make regular intentional posts. These regular updates will soon show up at the top of your Google search. Encourage your students to do the same and “clean up” their accounts. Colleges and employers are looking at their social media accounts! Having a positive social media presence can make a difference!

Our freshmen are learning about this in our Computer Apps classes. As we continue our journey as a School of Innovative Learning and Technology, as we learn and grow in this process, these practices will become our norm and part of our best practices.