EdTechTrek

So, as your life becomes more and more digital…

…and the lives of your students, and perhaps children, become more and more digital…

it becomes increasingly imperative that we all understand the implications, and yes, the ramifications of the digital tracks that we leave behind. To me, in one sense, this becomes a fantastic challenge… as the image below communicates. When we begin to understand the power that we hold and the reach that our online

activities have, the challenge becomes to live up to that potential. The students that we teach need to get this. Many adults need to get this. I am still working on getting this.

Yes, we all make mistakes and realize just how easy it is to mess up. But as I told one of my students the other day as we discussed these messy issues, if one lives with integrity, any messups are largely recoverable. If one lives recklessly, the dirty footprints that we leave on-line will end up haunting us potentially forever. Sure, you can hire one of the new companies that have emerged, online reputation managers, but they can’t work magic.

So, what better challenge than to publish worthy and quality intellectual property… to leave digital footprints that reflect, as the image above states, “good stuff”. Being “googleable” can mean searching oneself and finding nothing, mediocre to bad “stuff”, or excellence. In our present digital landscape, the first two results are not desirable in the least. For our students, this concept is quickly becoming imperative.

For many, this becomes problematic on school time, as completed worsheets are going to impress no one if published on-line. Publishing school fights, pranks, or other acts of lunacy on YouTube fills the void.

And beware… repercussions can be just a tweet away.