10 Days of building a positive digital footprint in review

We teach students how to be good citizens, but do we teach students how to be productive and influential digital citizens? With such a large digital space, many avoid teaching digital citizenship and literacy out of fear of where to begin. Unfortunately, that is a huge disservice to our students. By failing to teaching our students appropriate behavior and the power of their digital reputation, we hinder their careers. Whether we agree with it or not, students are building digital legacies--positive and negative. We have the power to impact and guide those legacies. So, let's start teaching students how to create positive digital footprints.

Over the past 10 days, I mentioned several methods to engage your students in positive digital discourse.

To begin, you need to be able to build a positive digital footprint for yourself. Then, you can guide your students through the process.

• Begin by "Googling" yourself. All of the results that pop up are your digital legacy. 
• Ask yourself these questions (from David Jakes): 
  • Do you believe that having an online presence is critical for you? For your students?  If so, how do you develop that within the context of your professional life, and for students, within the context of your school's climate and culture.
  • Within your school, have you had the conversations necessary to understand digital reputation and presence with all members of your school community?
  • Should students publish online?  Should schools help students create a positive digital record?  What if students don't want to publish their creations?
  • What spaces have you created that are safe for students to explore their creative and critical interests?  When does that space become permeable?
  • Should contributions be local first, and global second?  Can you encourage publishing if you are not living that yourself?
  • Has your school district developed the necessary policy to support student publishing? 
  • Have you protected your digital identity by reserving your domain name, and accounts on Facebook and Twitter?  What about your school?
• Use sites like Personas and Spezify to organize your digital footprints. 
• Become a classroom advocate for your students
• Set up Google Alerts so you know when your digital footprint changes
• And, blog, blog, blog...just as we tell students to write, write, write and read, read, read.
• Build ePortfolios for yourself and for your students--it is a great reflection piece
• Create Waves of change by using your digital presence to do good
• Build your personal learning network and USE it! 
• Make social networking a positive resource and not the scary monster it is often depicted as
• Become part of a global community 
• Take that first step forward into your digital legacy and use the Internet to do good--provide a structured atmosphere to start. Use a tiered-approach and guide your students to becoming active digital citizens.

Many school mission statements mention creating "active learners" and "responsible citizens." And, it's time we act on those mission statements. No longer are we just citizens of a city, a state, a country, but we are part of a global community that exists in the confines of a computer. We teach our students how to cross a street because we know they will have to do it alone someday. Likewise, we know our students will have to search and have to access the Internet someday, so why not teach them how? Digital citizenship is of the very most importance. 

Stay tuned for 10 days to effective searching techniques and Web evaluation. Like the teaching of digital citizenship and literacy, being an effective "searcher" and "evaluator" are important skills to have in a global community. 

Taking the first step forward to a positive digital path, Day #10--building positive digital footprints

 Students are taught that their digital footprints are a breadcrumb trail for bullies and sexual predators and not "potential tools for learning, finding like-minded peers, and building reputations as thoughtful contributors to meaningful digital conversations," says Bill Ferriter in his April 2011 Digitally Speaking column, "Positive Digital Footprints."

As I listen to my aunt tell her precocious nine-year old daughter (who enjoys making movies about a variety of topics with the help of her little sister and iMovie) about the dangers of the Internet, I think about what she is NOT telling her. Rather than instilling a philosophy of fear, she should continue to support a nine-year old, who is already asking for her parents to reserve a domain name for her movie site, in a way that encourages her creative potential and instructs her on how to continue doing good right now. As a nine-year old, her digital footprint is full of Websites containing movies she has developed about topics that are significant to her. As a nine-year old, she has more significant work to her name than many adults. And, that needs to be encouraged.

We all agree that the digital world is a powerful place, but it is not necessarily an entirely negative place. It is the world we make it become. The Youtube sensation of "challenges" like the "am I pretty" videos encourage the predators to pounce. However, teens like Katy Butler show that the digital world is more than one full of predators, it is one full of people like her who devote it to creating positive change. Before even entering college, Katy caries a digital footprint that has enormous amounts of power. This is the kind of digital footprint educators need to support, encourage, and facilitate.

Blogging, social networks, online communities, professional learning networks, wikis, and online forums are all powerful media. That power does need to be managed, but isn't that what we teach students in all other platforms: responsibility? Unfortunately, we often avoid teaching citizenship on the Web and, instead, cast it off as a dangerous place where we should not enter alone. This is the world where we live. Do we want to set students free into a world where they have not received proper education?

Let's take the first step into making a positive digital footprint by looking at the following resources:

• William Ferriter's article, Positive Digital Footprints, suggests taking a tiered approach to Internet safety  by giving all students basic instruction and targeting those most at-risk. He also recommends providing structured opportunities for students to do positive work online. Those who understand that you must act safe online and that the Internet is a place to do good, usually do not engage in the risky behaviors that fill the headlines. 
• However, students must be aware that their footprints can do damage. Once they are aware, however, the focus must be on creating opportunities for them to do good. Lessons for teaching the power of the Internet include: Would you hire you and Your reputation can hurt your job search. 
• CommonSense Media has a great curriculum for teaching digital citizenship and digital literacy for grades 6-8 available here. This can be adapted, however, to fit other grades.
• Digital Citizenship Adventures offers an outline for bringing a digital citizenship curriculum into the curriculum along with citizenship guidelines. 
• Career Builder provides a site on building a digital footprint you can be proud of. This is a great resource for high school and college students--even teachers! 
• My Media Footprint, a site created by Terra Kirsch, offers links to tools like Voki that can create an active, positive digital footprint. 
• The AASL blog has a good write-up on digital footprints and a listing of resources for classroom teachers. 
• ISTE provides a page navigating the digital world. On the page, they list a variety of projects to engage students in that will promote positive digital footprints. This is a great place to begin! 
• Edmodo even has an article from an eighth grade student and his work in creating positive digital footprints. 

Stay tuned for a wrap-up of the 10 days to building a positive digital footprint tomorrow. It starts with recognizing that the digital world has the potential for positive growth. Now, it needs to be taught and encouraged. 

Global communities broaden the digital footprint, Day #9--Building positive digital footprints

The nature of being online means that we are interconnected, within arm's reach to people across the globe. With that comes great responsibility and immense power. Now, we must train our students how to be responsible and how to use that power for a greater good. Rather than avoiding it, pretending online communities do not exist, wee must serve as guides for students as they navigate the Web.

Online communities vary in their content and nature, but one thing is consistent: they do not stop at the walls of the classroom. When I was in middle school in the mid-late 1990s, the craze was AOL's Chat rooms. I remember my dad bringing home his laptop (seemingly from the space age) from work, connecting it to our phone line, "dialing" in, browsing the few search categories on AOL and chatting as a family in several chat rooms. Looking back, I can only laugh at our beginnings. However, my dad did something right: he guided us through the process. Rather than getting lost in the "big" chat rooms of the 1990s, I had a guide. Teachers must do the same, especially today when chat rooms do not exist in the same context. Now, students are connected to people across the globe at the touch of their fingers. They have authorship powers that never existed before and their networks are larger than ever. And, now, learning is moving form full face-to-face, to blended, to completely online.

Like social networks, online communities are your networks. However, online communities represent a body of people connected to various issues/topics/goals. Students writing letters to China may be an online community, but it may not be a social network. They represent the projects students should engage in.

Some great online communities to engage in include:

• Article from Tech and Learning:  http://www.techlearning.com/default.aspx?tabid=67&entryid=396
• PBS teacher online community:  http://www.pbs.org/teachers/
• 8 Great LinkedIn groups for educators:  http://www.emergingedtech.com/2012/02/8-great-linkedin-groups-for-educators/
• 50 Great LinkedIn groups for higher education:  http://www.onlineuniversities.com/50-great-linkedin-groups-for-academics
• 5 Special Education online communities on LinkedIn:  http://blog.friendshipcircle.org/2011/11/07/5-great-special-education-groups-on-linkedin/
• 4 Ways to use LinkedIn:  http://blog.learningtoday.com/blog/bid/28680/Get-Connected-4-Ways-Educators-Can-Use-LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a great starting place for joining professional online communities. ePals, Moodle, and other learning management systems are effective tools for engaging students in online communities. Now is the time to start guiding students through global communities in order to broaden their footsteps, and make them responsible students devoted to positive growth. 

Social networking the dark horse, Day #8--Positive Digital Footprints

In Missouri and in many other states, social networking is the evil step sister, the topic few want to battle. Instead, most try to completely block it rather than to find ways to effectively integrate it. Unfortunately, social networking leaves digital footprints and must, therefore, be dealt with. When it is integrated in an appropriate manner, it can leave a positive digital legacy.

Maintaining blogs, portfolios, and professional learning networks are all part of building a positive digital footprint, but social networking, perhaps, leaves the largest mark. According to a MSNBC article, 85% of users across the globe, who are connected online, send and receive emails; 62% do so through social media. In places like Russia, Indonesia, South Africa, and Argentina, 75-80% use social networking. In the United States, 60% of online users are on social networking sites. Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks cannot be ignored. Leslie Horn of PC Mag, notes that "A new report from comScore revealed that over the last year, Facebook’s audience doubled to just north of 57 million users. Twitter saw its mobile audience grow 75 percent to 13.4 million people. LinkedIn has the smallest mobile audience of the three, but it still experienced a boom in the past 12 months, expanding by 69 percent to 5.4 million users. comsScore said in August 2011, 72.2 million Americans accessed social sites and blogs from their mobile phones, a 37 percent increase from a year ago." And, the most popular activity to engage in is reading posts about...you and others.

What you place on your social network is now subject to review by your boss, the police, news media, your parents, and many, many more. There is no need to go into the wealth of cases where employees have been fired over what they put on their Facebook page or blunders made on Twitter that put people under criticism. However, there is a common thread in such incidents: inappropriate use. What we do not read about are the positive uses of social media. It should be the goal of educators to make these positive uses the most noted and the most common. It should not be the goal of educators to turn a cold shoulder to social networking. What we can do is educate students and others on positive uses and take a stand to make social networking reach the goals it set out to: connect the globe through common bonds.

Below are some great examples of using social networking for a positive means:

• 20 colleges who use social media effectively:  http://www.usatodayeducate.com/staging/index.php/the-20-colleges-making-the-best-use-of-social-media
• A business example with Chipotle:  http://mashable.com/2012/03/21/chipotle-social-media/
• Great discussion in eWeek on social media's uses:  http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2010/06/16/03networking.h03.html
• Curtin University of Technology's discussion on the positive uses of social media:  http://networkconference.netstudies.org/2010/04/a-social-society-the-positive-effects-of-communicating-through-social-networking-sites/
• A great toolkit from ALA:  http://www.ala.org/yalsa/sites/ala.org.yalsa/files/content/professionaltools/Handouts/sn_toolkit11.pdf

Here are some educator-friendly social networking sites to use with your class (model effective uses in a safe environment:

• Edmodo--the most prevalent:  http://www.edmodo.com/
• Eight social media sites just for kids:  http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/01/8-social-media-sites-just-for-kids/
• Five fun and safe sites for kids:  http://mashable.com/2010/10/11/social-networks-children/
• Hundreds of "education networks"--GREAT source!:  http://www.educationalnetworking.com/List+of+Networks
• Classroom 2.0--an educator's network:  http://www.classroom20.com/
• 10 social networking sites as presented at the 2010 Global Education Conference:  http://murcha.wordpress.com/2010/11/14/10-social-networking-sites-global-education-conference-2010/

The focus recently has been on the negative uses of social media. Yes, they do exist. But, do we complain about the negative uses or strive to make it better? I argue for the latter. Social networking is defining generations of people and that is out of our control. However, we can control how they are defined and the course that social media takes. 

Build your Personal Learning Network, Day #7--positive digital footprints

To create a positive digital legacy, you must write, develop portfolios, spur waves of change, and build personal learning networks (PLN). With a personal learning network, you can control your audience and target specific groups. Think of it as your marketing campaign. If you want to reach the Columbia, Missouri market, you will look at various forms of advertising that will best market your business to the Columbia area. Likewise, when marketing your digital legacy, you want to find Web tools that will allow you to showcase yourself in a positive light and network with others who share your goals and who will encourage you to grow.

There is an abundance of tools out there for building your PLN; however, that does not mean that you have to use all of them. Just as you do not exhaust every marketing resource available, you only need to use the tools that best suit you. In my case, I use Blogger, Facebook, Diigo, LinkedIn, Google Reader, Twitter, and Google Docs. Blogger allows me to showcase my work in a convenient platform while Facebook lets me learn from others and develop my network. Diigo is a place to store what I have learned and Google Reader is a site to read the words of others in my field. And, Google Docs is a platform for developing my work that I showcase in my blog and on my Facebook page.

However, your personal learning network may vary drastically. Therefore, it is essential that you ask yourself the following questions when developing a PLN (remember: first build your own PLN as an educator and then, call upon your students to develop theirs):

• What are your professional/learning goals?
• What tools are your favorites?
• How do you want to leverage yourself?
• What do you have to leverage yourself?
• Who do you want to connect with?
• What do you currently use to connect with others?
• How might you broaden that?
• How will you manage your network? 

What is a PLN:

• Social (it's your own social network)
• Manageable (it contains groups you belong to and can contribute to EASILY)
• Motivational (it is full of other similar professionals who can motivate you)

Student PLNs:

• From Edna Sackson's Wordpress page on "10 ways to help students develop a PLN":
• 1. Arrange the tables in groups.
  Provide opportunities for students to engage with their in-class PLN.   Encourage conversation.  Encourage cooperation. Encourage collaboration. Set tasks that allow students to construct meaning together with their PLN.
  2. Let them talk.
  Don’t do all the talking. Don’t be the filter.  Allow them to respond directly to each other. Even if it’s a frontal lesson where you need to explain new material, allow 5 minutes here and there for them to talk it through amongst themselves. Use thinking routines like ‘Think, pair, share’.
  3. Be part of their PLN.
  Model what good learning looks like and sounds like.  Share your own learning. Learn with and from your students. Don’t pretend to know all the answers. Discover and uncover new things together.  Don’t overplan. Explore and investigate with your students.
  4. Promote an out-of-class PLN.
  Let them work with students from other classes. Provide cross level opportunities. Arrange electives that allow collaboration across grade levels. Organize learning experiences that involve other teachers.
  5. Flatten classroom walls.
  Create global connections. Collaborate with kids in other countries.  Set up a Voicethread so kids all over the world can respond. Find classes learning about the same issues to debate with on Skype.
  6. Learn from experts.
  Invite speakers from your local community. Bring in people from anywhere in the world via Skype. Encourage students to pursue their interests by finding people they can learn from outside of  school and online.
  7. Encourage conversation with family.
  Invite parents to share in the learning, in person, or by commenting on class blogs and wikis.  Set tasks that involve parents, grandparents and siblings. Send student questions and wonderings that haven’t been addressed in class, home for discussion.
  8. Learn through blogging.
  Start a class blog.  Write for an authentic audience. Ask teachers from other schools and in other countries to get their students to comment. Get your kids to read and comment on other class blogs. Develop a conversation. Develop a relationship.
  8. Focus on communication.
  Whoever’s in your PLN, you need to know how to communicate. Listening is just as important as speaking. Teach them that it isn’t always about you. Model consideration and mutual respect within a PLN.
  9. Define the student’s PLN.
  Increase awareness that learning doesn’t belong only at school. Ask them to think about who they learn from and with. Get them to create a mind-map showing their personal learning network.  Keep adding to it as the network grows.
  
  

Resources before beginning your PLN journey:

• One ed techer's journey in developing a PLN with Ning for himself and his students:  http://tomwhitby.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/the-educator%E2%80%99s-pln/
• The Educator's PLN (a Ning page):  http://edupln.com/
• 21things site with access to many tools for developing PLNs:  http://www.21things4teachers.net/17---professional-learning-networks.html
• The PLP theory on personal learning networks:  http://plpnetwork.com/research-based-professional-development-that-works/
• Miguel Guhlin's Site on Professional Learning Networks:  https://sites.google.com/site/embracingtech4change/expand-your-brain
• Presentation by Jennifer Carrier Dorman:  http://www.slideshare.net/cliotech/power-up-your-professional-learning-network-presentation

These are merely the beginning. If you don't use a professional/personal learning network now, it's time to start! As the lone "techie" at my school, my PLN has allowed me to still stay connected with others in my field despite them not having a physical presence. In fact, this blog is a reflection of resources from my network. 

Creating waves of change, Day #6--building positive digital footprints

In addition to blogging and building a resume with your online presence, it is also important to push forward change--to be part of something greater--as you develop your digital footprints. Unlike the generations before, you have the power to touch a much larger audience with your digital legacy. So, why not use that audience to your advantage? In this sense, a digital footprint is very unique--anyone can view it. Before, the audience you reached on a day-to-day basis was rather consistent and, perhaps, limited. Now, however, the audience can change drastically.

With online collaboration projects, teachers and students can create a positive mark in their online presence. For instance, if students collaborate with a school in Ethiopia to improve women's rights, that project becomes permanent on the student's record or resume. Just as the more positive, influential roles and jobs you undertake can improve your resume, so too can the collaborative projects students engage in.

Some great collaborative projects include:

• This site provides a great listing:  http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/Global_Collaborative_Projects.htm
• iEARN Collaboration projects (facilitated by teachers and students, schools can join existing projects or initiate their own projects of change):  http://media.iearn.org/projects
• Grandmother and me (a project that stretches across ethnicities and languages and shares the grandmothers of the world):  http://www.kidlink.org/drupal/project/grandmother/?q=KIDPROJ/grandmother/
• ePals (a global community for teachers and students):  http://www.epals.com/
• The U.S. Department of Education's guide to Internet Collaboration:  http://www2.ed.gov/teachers/how/tech/international/index.html
• WhaleNet (a place to collaborate with others in the natural world):  http://whale.wheelock.edu/Welcome.html
• Global SchoolNet (hosts many great collaborative projects):  http://www.globalschoolnet.org/
• The JASON project (connects education through science in a global environment):  http://www.jason.org/public/whatis/start.aspx
• My Hero Project:  http://myhero.com/go/home.asp

All projects allow students to not only participate and create change in a global community, but add a positive legacy to their names. Check out the first link for a listing of many more projects to engage your class in. All projects will help build a positive digital legacy for you and your students and improve digital citizenship. 

Google is the new resume, App #5--building positive digital footprints with ePortfolios

To get your resume, an employer only needs to search your name on Google. Your online presence will be readily available. Therefore, why not build up your online presence? You don't want your resume to be empty just as you don't want your online presence to be empty. You want your resume to be filled with quality, meaningful work that showcases your best assets just as you want your online presence to be filled with positive examples of your work. And, with ePortfolios becoming commonplace, there is even more incentive to jump on the bandwagon.

First of all, ePortfolios are not just for students; all educators should build a portfolio as a means of reflection and professional growth. Before beginning portfolios with students, educators should try building their own.

Read below for some great resources getting started with portfolios in the classroom:

From Dr. Hellen Barrett: http://electronicportfolios.com/google/

Where can you build ePortfolios:

• Digication (a personal favorite and an extension of Google Apps for Education): http://digication.com/google
• Wikispaces
• Google Sites

What are some guidelines for building ePortfolios:

• Overview on ePortolios with Google Apps for Education by Dr. Helen Barrett: http://sites.google.com/site/eportfolioapps/overview
• Presentations on ePortfolios by Dr. Helen Barrett: http://sites.google.com/site/eportfolios/Home
• 
  

Where are some sources for building ePortfolios:

• Stony Brook's example with Digication (includes matrices):  https://stonybrook.digication.com/nancywozniak/Requirements
• Educase's resource site:  http://www.educause.edu/ELI/Archives/EPortfolios/5524
• The University of Texas College of Education: http://www.edb.utexas.edu/education/centers/ltc/fac_staff/idea/studio/resources/r_ep/

Portfolios are just one way to create a positive online presence. Continue to view your work online as our resume and you will begin to make positive footprints.