Journal 14

Source Evaluation:

This weeks reading came from School Library Monthly—a source I hadn’t looked at much in the past.  Articles were pretty easy to find by clicking on the ARTICLES button on the left tool bar, but they were a little bit more dated than I would have liked.  Some were as old as 2005, and few were written in the last year.  This isn’t a huge drawback, but relevance is pretty important in a career so linked with technology as school librarianship.  I did like that the articles were displayed by category/topic, and I chose “Forging a Positive Cyber-Reputation: Who Are You?” by Kathy Fredrick, a library director in Ohio.  Another nice feature of this source, or at least this article, is that there are lists of extra resources related to the article at the bottom of the page.

 

This article jumped out at me because in the last few weeks I have thought about my own online image and those of my students as I have been making the webpage for my final assessment.  I keep hearing one of my classmates—and I’m sorry that I can’t remember who!—say that she emphasizes that her students should make a positive digital footprint, not just avoid making a negative one.

 

Summary:

Fredrick explains several issues relating to digital personas and how they affect students.  She, too, notes that educators have been spending time teaching internet safety, but that we need to go beyond that and give students the tools to communicate effectively online, just as we teach them how to write and speak differently according to different face to face situations. Frederick suggests that educators ask students to reflect on what their web presence looks like and share tools with them that can help them change their online reputation if necessary. 
 
She lays out a detailed and helpful list that includes:

1.       Have students Google themselves and contact sites if they have published something incorrect

      2.       Teachers model responsible behavior by creating sites and sharing work ethically online
      3.       Provide opportunities for students to create their own websites
      4.       Provide safe opportunities for students to publish work
      5.       Make sure that the students have school access to the online work—be sure it’s not blocked by the school’s filters
      6.       Speak with students about their “web cred” whenever there’s a teachable moment

 Frederick closes by stressing that kids are already living on the web, and it would be irresponsible to just tell them to keep everything private. 

 
Content Evaluation:
I want every parent and teacher everywhere to read this article!  It makes me feel like I have been overprotective of my students in the past or that I’ve taken the approach of an ostrich with my head in the sand.  Just this year I had students publish videos for class, but I forbade them from disclosing any personal information—including their full names.  I did this because I felt like it was the safest option—but now I see that those students could have used those videos to build up a positive online presence (or most of them could have, anyway!).  I have even limited myself by making my ISU blogs and classroom websites private only—not searchable via Google.  But there’s nothing on any of those sites that I am ashamed of or that would hurt myself or my students if it were public.

 I particularly liked the point Frederick made that new content will begin to balance out old content, so it’s important to keep posting positive, responsible materials.  Not only am I going to help my students do this, but I’m going to improve my own online image, too!  I’m really afraid to Google myself, though—I haven’t done it yet.  I will, though… how about after school is out?  In addition to the final project for 414, I’m also going to make my classroom website searchable via Google, and I’m going to make a new page for my personal use.

 

This article has spurred me to do a little bit more research on improving one’s digital footprint. Here are a few of the best things I’ve dug up:

·         Improving your Digital Footprint—a slideshare presentation by Matt Lingard, 2009

·         Granville Elementary Computer Lab—webarticle on the importance of a positive digital footprint and how it reflects you as a person

·         Top 10 Strategies to Improve your Online Reputation—a blog post by Duncan Morris, 2007

 The possibilities for helping kids with their literacy skills here is evident: they will build critical thinking skills as they evaluate their current reputations and problem solve to build better ones.  They will also be motivated to build technology literacy/tool literacy skills to help them put their ideas into practice. 

Overall, this article was just the right amount of philosophy backed by ready-to-use, practical ideas that can help all my students, as well as myself!