If you are unfamiliar with what your digital footprint is, I'll give you a brief description: it’s the trail, trace or ‘footprint’ that you leave online. Some of these ‘footprints’ could be made intentionally (eg. blogs or forums), but some ‘footprints’ left on the web may be left unintentionally… and much of it will remain online indefinitely. So, why is this important? Well, a couple of weeks ago we had George Couros speak to our Internet for Educators class about this. George shared with us that most principals are now hiring teachers only after doing an online search on them… that’s not intimidating (sarcasm)! Now, more than ever, I’m worried about my digital footprint. I find myself thinking about everything I do on the web today AND trying to think back to what I have done since I was... 13?! I had no idea what I was doing on the web at 13, let alone how it would impact my future... Gah!! I know the easiest way to find your digital footprint is to Google yourself.. so that's what I did... here’s what shows up on the first page:
- That I have a twitter account,
- My old swim team (Brandon Bluefins) club records,
- Some track and field results from 2003!?,
- That I have a Facebook profile,
- An education bursary I received and…
- Tries to associate me with the Doppler radar (I’m not).
Until my next post... JD
That's good to hear Jocelyn!! I wouldn't worry too much as I think we are all fairly smart with technology today!! I do agree that it is a little scary to think we were on the internet when we were 13, but luckily it doesn't seem like any of us have too bad of a digital footprint!! Now we have to worry more about adding to the positive so that administrators have something great to find about us :)
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