Hi Blog!

For my reflection this week I decided to discuss my digital footprint and what it means to me as a teacher candidate and future educator.

Before investigating my own digital footprint, I was reminded of a vivid memory from high school when we had The White Hatter come to our school and give a school wide presentation about online safety and privacy. The presentation scared the heebie-jeebies out of me, stressing the importance of privacy settings and the threat of online predators. After this interaction, I remember going home that day and enabling privacy settings on my Facebook and Instagram. As time passed the fears this presentation instilled in me became of less importance to my life and I started using other social media apps as time went on.

What is a Digital Footprint?

The Government of Canada defines a digital footprint as:

“the trail of data you create while using the Internet. This trail of data comes from the websites you visit, the emails you send and the information you submit or download online. You build your footprint both actively and passively.”

My Digital Footprint:

Now, to start my reflection process on my own digital footprint I first took to Google and started the dreaded task of entering my name into the search bar. When searching my name and hometown I found several newspaper articles with my name and photo regarding academic achievements, school concerts, and sports accomplishments. These are all things that I feel comfortable having out on the Internet but were things I was unaware were out there. Additionally, when searching for my social media accounts online I found that I had done a pretty good job on locking down my personal Facebook and Instagram accounts which I primarily use. On the other hand, I do use one app, VSCO, which does not have any privacy settings and after inputting my name into the search bar followed by “VSCO” all of my personal photos popped up for everyone to see.

The photos on my account are not something I had ever been concerned about but as a teacher candidate and future educator, I would prefer to only be using apps that provide me the ability to lockdown and keep my content private from future students. After seeing how easily accessible my content was, I decide to deactivate my account from the platform. As a teacher candidate my image both online and offline has become of extreme importance to me. We have all heard the horror stories of teachers getting their licenses revoked for inappropriate online content – and this is something I need to be cognizant of. Living in a small town the things you do become public knowledge pretty quickly, whether that be online posting or public interactions. I want to be a role model for my students, ensuring I am a responsible online communicator leaving behind a digital footprint I am proud of and can exert control over is an important practice to uphold.

How does this apply to my career as an educator?

Moving forward this is a very valuable lesson for me, and one that I can use to help educate my future students about making smart decisions online. Informing my students about what a digital footprint means is the first step. Below I’ve linked a video that I think would help explain this concept to younger children:

As our society becomes increasingly more technological, I believe teaching our students from a young age how to use online communities responsibly and safely will be imperative. Through my EDCI 336 course, I have learnt that the term digital citizenship refers to the ethical, responsible, and safe use of engaging in online environments. A helpful resource I plan to utilize to teach my future students to be responsible and informed online users is Common Sense Education and their digital citizenship lessons – they have heaps of online lessons for various grade levels as well as resources for teachers and parents. I plan to investigate these resources further and integrate them into my teaching practice to help my students learn from the start how to engage safely and positively in online spaces – to ensure they can be proud of their online activities and subsequent digital footprints.

Bye for now Blog!