I faintly remember being taught about my digital footprint. I think it was one time in elementary school where it was brought up. I remember watching a video that definitely made me think. I believe it was a scare tactic that worked on me. I remember askfm was really big at the time. All of my friends were on it. It was an app where you can choose to ask someone a question anonymously and that person can choose to answer it or not depending on the question. I remember right after the video looking through my askfm trying to find any answer I gave that made me question if it was good for my digital footprint. I ended up deleting a bunch of posts and a month later deleting my account. The video definatley scared me into being very smart online. To this day, when I post something on social media, I think about what it makes me look like as a person, what it could look like to my future employer, and what it could like to my future students if they ever where to find access to my social media.
This approach proved is purpose back then, although when I get into teaching my own lessons on digital footprint, I think I would do it a little differently. When I teach this in my own classroom, I would want students to watch a video explaining their digital footprint and how it has an impact on their lives. I would then give the students a list of questions, asking their opinion on their relationship on social media with the nine elements of digital citizenship, focusing mainly on the elements 3-9. I would also have them look through their own social media accounts, and write a little paragraph on if they think they have a positive digital citizenship, and what they can start or stop doing in order to have a more positive social media outlook. Something I also liked in the article Character Education in the Digital Age was about putting technology into a broader social context. This article talked about a goal where Students will study the personal, social, and environmental impacts of every technology and media application they use in school. I think it would extremely beneficial for students now, because this would have been awesome for me to learn in elementary school and high school.
Hi Carson, I remember learning about internet safety and being scared as tactic as well. I still to this day keep all my social media private because my parents were big on internet safety and I didn’t like the idea of strangers being able to access all my information. I like the technique you would use to educate your students about internet safety and digital footprint. Thanks for sharing!
Hey Carson,
Growing up, I had the exact same experience of the “scare tactic” being taught while learning about cyber safety. Teachers would often only show us worst case scenario examples, never really showing us how to properly navigate the world of the internet.
I think moving into an educator role, it is important to teach how to use these tools safely and effectively and I think the foundation of that is teaching about digital citizenship and all the things that come with it.
Good luck in your future endeavors.
Zach