A person’s digital footprint refers to the reputation you build online. It also refers to how visible you are online and what information someone might find while searching your name online. Have you ever searched yourself on Google? Of course after reading through this presentation I had to see what I would come up with. I was happy to find several results for “Melissa Claus” and none of which were related to me. I am sure that is not the case for most people. Most people that searched their name can find their facebook page, Linkedin, YouTube videos, Twitter and a number of other social media outlets they use.
The key thing to remember is the fact that anyone with internet access can search your name and potentially find both positive and negative information about you. I liked one of the quotes used in the presentation, “People will remember you for the things you say and the things you do.” We have to be cautious about what we say and do on the internet because it will be forever attached to our name. This is something I feel students need to be aware of. It doesn’t matter if you feel like you need much privacy or not, you still need to protect your reputation. You may not care if a friend from high school sees the rude comment you wrote but would you want a potential future employer to read it? These are the things students to be aware of. It may seem like all fun in games until your try to get a job.
The presentation I reviewed discussed some of the things companies look for when viewing a potential employee’s online profiles. They look for the following things:
- An indication of the applicants personality
- Online profile supports professional qualifications and conduct
- Good communication skills
- Creativity
- Groups in which the applicant participates in
- Do other people provide good references and comments about them
- Have they received any awards
I liked the list that was provided by the author because, as an educator, it helps me narrow down on something that need to be discussed with my students. There was one thing that stuck out to me from this list and that was the one about other people making positive comments about the applicant. It seems so simply, yet it is almost out of your control. Students and any adults applying for a job needs to be monitor their social media site to ensure any comments made by other people are positive in nature.
The author also provided a list of the top reasons a company did not hire an applicant:
- Posting inappropriate picture and/or comments
- Posted comments about drinking and/or doing drugs
- Bad mouthing a previous employer, co-worker or client
- Showed poor communication skills
- Made discriminatory comments
- Lied about qualifications
- Shared confidential information about a previous employer
I think this list if equally important. Students think they are doing no harm right now posting something inappropriate but how will that affect them in the future? As educators, it is our job to prepare our students for their futures. We must teach digital citizenship and how to be sure your leave a positive digital footprint.
Melissa, I loved the colorful digital footprints you added to help illustrate what a digital footprint is. I've long been aware of the types of online information that could help to disqualify an applicant or get someone fired. The list that describes what companies would be looking for in an applicant is very helpful; this list once again points to the need for people to proactively create positive digital profiles--and to counteract other digital name doubles who are not you, some of whom may be unsavory but may be mistake for the real you.
ReplyDeleteOur students and people in general do need to be aware of their digital footprint but I would also argue that organizations need to use good judgement and learn to be somewhat flexible when considering one's digital footprint. For example, if an applicant is highly qualified for a position, I don't think they should necessarily be completely eliminated due to some negative pictures posted online - give the applicant a chance to explain. I'd be interested to hear if they've learned from those images being posted online, what they would have done differently in the past and what they are doing in the future to help improve their digital footprint. No one is perfect, no one's digital footprint will be perfect. I just hope that employers will be strategic in utilizing the digital footprint into their application evaluations.
DeleteChristian, your comment about hoping employers will give applicants a chance is one I agree with. There are so many Facebook pictures of people, for example, "partying" that we as a culture have become a little less shocked by those types of images, perhaps. This conversation makes me think of Qualman's notion that just knowing that a photograph might be snapped at any moment (and uploaded in 15 minutes) will help shape people's behavior for the better. I wonder if that is actually true....
DeleteI totally agree... LOVE the digital footprints... maybe this could be a double dipping project to help explain this concept to our students and allow them to create an art project that could illustrate what they think it means. I agree with all of the responses in that we need to be aware and make our students knowledgeable and aware as well. I have seen lots of people taking pictures and videos of others not so proud moments and it makes you wonder... if they were aware...would they do the same thing again????
DeleteThe quote really stuck with me. Eventually a bad grade or test score will go away, but posting content online could haunt a student forever. The more I read about the digital footprint, the more I want to incorporate some kind of lesson into an early school year unit. I love the ideas in these readings about helping students not only to erase a poor digital footprint, but to help them highlight a positive one.
ReplyDeleteStarting early in the year is a good way to keep the lessons going- especially if the lessons empower the students to want to leave a positive footprint. Our readings keep telling us how the newest generations are using social media for recording charitable and life-fulfilling activities, but I am sure that there is just as much garbage being recorded and our students need to know the difference.
DeleteAfter seeing the presentation at BMS last spring... all of our students and their parents need to see some type of this presentation to be aware of the consequences and also the dilemma it creates later down the road. I believe many of us that use technology all of the time...do not realize this digital footprint impact. As always choices have consequences.
DeleteI really liked this presentation and post. I think the presentation is something that should be used with all of our students before they leave Oak Hills, or even get to the High School perhaps. I think it is difficult for 13-14 year old kids to grasp the idea of something they say or do now that is captured online can take years to overshadow and erase, if ever. We have to find some way to teach that future-thinking to save them from what they do not know or understand. Sadly, I don't think that fact even crosses their mind when posting and utilizing social media.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of the internet, getting students to recognize how current actions can impact them down the road is tough. Unfortunately, social media makes mistakes that kids are bound to make, more permanent.
Deletethey have to learn the hard way... unfortunately. But in some cases their parents have a worse footprint.
DeleteI have googled myself before, and I was glad that I had no search results...until now. With all of the social media sites and other platforms I have been joining, I now have a searchable digital footprint. My name popped up for scoop-it, classroom 2.0, google+, and even one with information about my career! I have to say that I am pretty displeased with this new information. Perhaps having kids google themselves would be a good way to start off teaching digital footprint. It certainly was a wake-up call to me, and I rarely use the different sites I am signed up for.
ReplyDeleteI have had a small digital footprint in the past but it has grown since signing up for these things. The first on that popped up was LinkedIn. It is amazing how signing up for a couple of things really can make you more searchable. Has anyone else searched for themselves? If you haven't you should. One day we were searching for a teacher for fun and found that they had a fake profile on Facebook where a student had found an old picture of this teacher from somewhere and used it to create a negative profile. This is the kind of stuff that scares me.
DeleteI remember just before leaving school talking to a student about their cell phone. They were telling me that they love snapchat (which is a popular app that send a picture and is only available for the other person to see for a couple of seconds). I was telling them that they need to be careful because people can keep that picture by screenshotting that image or that if police ever wanted to get the image it would still be in their phone. This shocked this particular student when I was telling them this. I then added that they needed to be careful when sending or posting anything because someday an employer, a grandparent, or someone they care about could find something that they sent. I then added that when you post something or send something it should be something that you would show your grandma. The student chuckled but I could tell they were thinking about it because they hadn't really given much thought to it. Teaching our students about their digital footprint is very important because someday the good or bad decisions they make could help or hurt them get a job.
ReplyDeleteMelissa, your post really got me thinking. So far, when discussing digital footprint in this class, I usually think about being cautious of what we post or the sites we visit for fear of that potentially hurting us down the road. I haven't really thought about it the other way around. Knowing what companies look for can really help young people construct their own digital footprint that favors them. It's more about being proactive than reactive. It would be easy to build your professional networks and memberships, show creativity, show that you have good communication skills, and be proud of your accomplishments and awards by making them visible. These things would take very little effort to make happen, but could be the difference between you getting a job and not getting a job.
ReplyDeleteMelissa- great job- this is important, unfortunately kids wont learn until it happens to them. Having a speaker come in and talk is important for all to hear. But i can easily think of a number of ways to search for a student on twitter or facebook- they will be shocked what they see. I showed a student what was on his twitter page, and then asked if i should forward it to his mom- he freaked out... it made a big difference.
ReplyDeleteThis is true that most kids won't learn until it happens to them. It's amazing the comments I've seen by potential students even Twitter. I wonder if their parents know what they are posting (I'm sure they don't...)? At the same time, is it the job of the administration to call in each student regarding their inappropriate Twitter post? Probably not, but at the same time maybe it's time that we maybe bring in a presenter or have a conversation with our kids abou this topic. We had a lady a few years ago come in and talk to the kids about texting inappropriate text messages, but this message now is almost obsolete. Of course, students can still send inappropriate text messages if they want, but I think kids are smarter and more tech savvy now when making these decisions. They now think private messages and snapshot are the better way to go!
DeleteI look at this list you created of "what to look for" on social media, and realized that for the most part employers will not find any of this information about me when googled, simply because I don't usually use social media and my Facebook page is set to private (which I hardly use as well). I wonder if this would help or hender me on a job search (which I hopefully of course will not be doing any time soon)!
ReplyDeleteI also wonder if by setting your Facebook page to private, if that actually means it's private. Does it not impact your digital footprint at all? That would be something to look into b/c for some reason I would bet it could still impact your digital footprint.
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