Digital+Footprints

Type in the content of your page here. > Do you know what your digital footprint says about you? If not, find out. Here’s how. >> You can start in the obvious way and just Google yourself by typing your name into Google’s search box in whatever way(s) someone doing a search about you might i.e. John Smith, teacher. Take a look at what you see. Any surprises? Anything you wish were different? >> Spezify is a search tool presenting results from a large number of websites in different visual ways. The site moves web search away from endless lists of blue text links and towards a more intuitive experience giving viewers an overview of a subject. The site mixes all media types: blogs, videos, microblogs and images. Everything communicates and helps building the bigger picture. >> Personas shows you how the Internet sees you. It is a critique of data mining, revealing the computer’s uncanny insights and inadvertent errors. It is meant for the viewer to reflect on our current future world where digital histories are as important, than oral histories, and computation methods of condensing our digital traes are largely opaque and socially ignorant. >> You can sign up for Google Alerts to receive email updates of the latest relevant Google results about you by simply visiting the site and entering your name. You can click preview to see the type of results you'll receive.
 * 1) **Get in touch with your digital footprint.**
 * 1) __**Google**__  **yourself.**
 * 1) __**Spezify**__  **who you are.**
 * 1) **Check out your online** __**Persona**__ **.**
 * 1) **Use** __**Google Alerts**__  **to monitor what others are saying about you**

> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Once you’ve investigated what your digital footprint says about you, it’s time to determine if this is the message you want to convey. If it is there are several ways to grow the message more widely. If it is not there are several ways you can begin taking control of your digital footprint. Step three outlines several such ways. > > <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//There are several things you can do right now to begin taking control of your digital footprint.// >> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What do people see when they find you online? You can control how you appear in Google and tell others more about who you are by creating a personal profile. A Google profile, enables you to easily share your web content on one central location. You can include, for example, links to your blog, online photos, and other profiles such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and more. You have control over what others see. You can also allow people to find you more easily by enabling your profile to be searched by your name. Simply set your existing profile to show your full name publicly. >> Go to Flavors.me and BAM you have your resume online. This site allows users to create a free and easy one page summary of who you are including your Facebook, Twitter, blog, website, and more. >> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Use a site like Wikispaces to create a wiki that can serve as a collection of materials that you want people to find about you. Wikispaces is an easy[-to-use option that is free for educators. >> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You can launch a blog in minutes and for free on sites like Blogger and Word Press. A blog provides a terrific forum for you to right about topics of importance to you and enables you to begin to establish credibility and expertise in areas that are important to you. >> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Make videos about topics important to you. This ultimately serves the same purpose as a blog. High school student Armond McFadden did a great job of this with his <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__Transcast and Mass Transportation__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> series on YouTube. When you look up Armond McFadden, you immediate know what this young man is expert in. Transportation, busses, trains. >> Comment on blogs and in discussion forums about topics and issues important to you. Be sure to include your name and if applicable a link to your webpage or blog. This ultimately will come up in searches and will. let people know what you stand for and how you feel about topics of importance. >> Set up a Twitter page and join the conversation. Make sure you fill out the bio information with your real name and important information about yourself. You can start following friends on Twitter by searching for a topic. For instance someone interested in education could simply search for “education” or search for a popular education search term like #edchat. You may want to follow the people who tag Tweets with this tag. Find one that’s interesting and reply to it. This becomes part of your digital footprint. >> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">While some people use Facebook for purely personaly purposes, a growing number of indiiduals are using Facebook to establish a digital presence from which they can make professional connections and join conversations. The beauty of Facebook is the ease in which you can share links and information with specific people by tagging them and others can see and join the conversation as well. You can create a public Facebook page that conveys who you ae and what you stand for while at the same time developing and maintaining valuable connections. You can visit my Facebook page for an example of what that might look like at Lisa Velmer Nielsen. Chris Lehmann also has a professional Facebook page worth visiting. >> Select a domain that represents you. In many cases this will simply be your name. In other cases it may be a phrase that represents you. For instance, I bought the domain www.educatinginnovatively.com but there are also those who buy their name as a domain such as www.angelamaiers.com. To create your domain you need to do two things.
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Determine if your digital footprint conveys the message you want.**
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Begin taking control of your digital footprint**
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Create your** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__**Google profile**__
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Connect with** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__**Flavors.me**__  <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Create a** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__**wiki**__
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Launch a** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__**blog**__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**.**
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Make videos or podcasts**
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Comment on blogs and in discussion forums** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__**Tweet**__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Create a** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__**Facebook Page**__
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Create your own** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__**domain**__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">See if the domain you want is available at a site like http://www.Godaddy.com
 * 2) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Buy your domain at any number of sites. http://www.10dollar.ca is one that Dean Shareski recommends
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dean shared the story of one innovative school Nokomis Regional High that upon graduation bequeaths each graduate with a domain using their name. After one year students can keep the domain or choose to let the renewal lapse. Some innovatie schools are taking this a step further and providing students with a domain upon entry to school and supporting students in developing a site that represents them during their years in school.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Thanks to Dean Shareski for inspiring this post and providing a thought-provoking and engaging session. For more ideas on controlling your digital footprint you can view the entire presentation filled with thought provoking questions and quotes, advice, and videos below.