Digital Footprint

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This work by Simon Tong is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Do you know what digital footprints you have left behind when online?

You can think of these digital footprints as the trail of your activity online: the information you access, the details you share, the games you play, the groups with whom you interact with.

Do you know you are creating your web presence?
An additional footprint is created each time you access the Internet from a computer, connect with a gaming station, send a text message, or play a game on your cellphone.

Are you aware that your digital footprint cannot be erased and is available to others at any time?

Common Sense Media: Digital Footprint Intro from Joaquin E. Jutt on Vimeo.

If you are unable to view the above video from vimeo, use this link for a YouTube version.

Source: Microsoft Data Privacy Day Report

What people often forget is that information passed along digitally cannot be thrown away like the note you write and pass to a classmate.

So, what type of web presence do you want to have?

Ready or not, you need to make decisions now that will affect you far into the future... including when you apply for college or for a job! The graph on the left shows how employers are using the Internet to locate information about people they are thinking of hiring. Notice that they search social networking sites (such as FaceBook and MySpace), look at photo and video sharing to see if you have posted something appropriate, blogs and personal web sites. This is the footprint we are talking about, and you can't just erase or throw it away.

- photo by: milena mihaylova, Source: Flickr, found with Wylio.com

During this module, you will explore one of the questions posed at the end of the video.

How will you express yourself?

Activity

Part 1.
What is your current web presence?

Web Presence Mapping: Create a digital “map” that tracks your digital footprint and portrays a picture of your current web presence. Use the following steps:

Create a list of sites you may have left a footprint on. These might include social networking sites (MySpace, FaceBook), gaming sites, shopping sites, learning sites, …
Organize the list, putting similar sites together. For example, all social networking sites together, all gaming sites together, etc.
Create a visual representation of you using your list. You may use graphics, such as screen shots and/or pictures, to develop your map.

Mind Mapping the Post-Election Crisis in Kenya

Travel with Lewis and Clark and have fun with this Way Back Machine Activity.

Part 2.
What does your web presence say about you?

Writing Reflection: Thinking about the specific "footprints" or information you leave behind on the sites on your map (such as what you viewed, typed, or accessed), if this was the only information someone had about you, what would they think about you? What assumptions would they make about your habits & behaviors?

Just as you can be a different person to different people (sibling, child, cousin, student, friend, etc), you can be deliberate about developing different areas of your web presence. The presence represented in Part 1 is most likely your personal one. Even at your age, it is important to begin thinking about creating a more formal or “professional” web presence.

Personal Me

Professional Me

What type of professional web presence do you want to create? Click on the button to see the activity and resources to create your own digital portfolio web page.

Connections

NETS-S: 1.b, 5.a
METS: 6-8:CI.2, 9-12:CI.3; 6-8: DC.6

Melinda Waffle-REMC 12E; Calhoun Intermediate School District; Marshall, MI
Kevin Clark-REMC 11; Berrien RESA; Berrien Springs, MI

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Based on a work at 21things4teachers.net.