Social Media

Your digital footprint. Or is it yours?

This is a guest post by the @digitalsisters who are Emma and Charlotte Robertson, founders of Digital Awareness UK. I first met Emma and Charlotte at BETT 2015 and I was really impressed with their approach to e-safety. I asked them to contribute to my blog and they kindly agreed.

When we deliver our Employable Digital Footprint Programme in schools, we challenge students to think about what they would like people to find when they “Google” them. And not just any people – potential employers, teachers or Universities they might want to apply to attend.

One of our favorite classroom debates questions “should you be judged by a future potential employer based on something silly you posted 10 years ago?”

We like it because usually the ‘no’ argument leans towards people believing in freedom of expression – whether that’s in relation to politics, religion, your music taste or even your ex-girlfriend! The very purpose of social media, especially for young people, is that it’s a platform for them to reveal their identity and voice their opinion. If political correctness and clean imagery were a key requirement for social networking it probably wouldn’t last long!

The ‘yes’ argument usually leans towards the opinion that if you choose to post a silly picture of yourself or even a racist comment, which could offend people, you have to expect that people will judge you for it moving forwards.

Your digital footprint is the trail of information you leave behind you when you do anything online – the things you buy, the keywords you search for, the comments you make on Facebook or your profile picture on Twitter. Michelle Clark has done a fantastic TED Talk on digital footprints and the impact they have on young people today:

As time passes, we’re slowly starting to discover that not only do these behavours get sold onto third party marketing companies; they can also be used as a character reference.

Research by ExecuNet showed that 77% of recruiters said they used search engines to find background data on candidates and 33% admitted they eliminated a candidate because of what they found online. This is where things get interesting. If you “Googled” a candidate and found this picture, would you consider hiring them?

Sellotape Selfie

So whether students like it or not, when it comes to the crunch they may get judged based on something they’ve done 10 years ago.

However, there are also many plus sides to having a digital footprint. You can purposefully create things online to ensure that when employers or Universities do Google you, they find something that showcases you in a more positive light. This could be a careers blog, an infographic CV or well-populated LinkedIn profile.

Once students have done a clean up of their digital footprint (if that’s what they wish to do)! We focus on the positive side, and brainstorm creative ways to get yourself noticed online.

There are five simple steps you can take to helping to protect your digital footprint and this is something we hammer home to our students:

1. Check the security settings on all your social network profiles to ensure the content you’re posting is as secure as you want it to be
2. Use nick names if you don’t want to use your real identity
3. Delete old, disused social profiles such as Bebo, which may contain content that doesn’t reflect you in a positive light
4. ‘Report’ any content of you that you wish to be deleted to social networks. Or work with Google/the webmaster of any website you feature in to get it deleted. Click here [hyperlink: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/4628134?hl=en%5D to find out how
5. Moving forward, think before you post!

Digital Awareness UK use leading YouTube stars, hackers and social media specialists to inspire students to enjoy using social media safely. If you’d like to work with them to help bolster your e-safety efforts, get in touch with Emma and Charlotte at http://www.digitalawarenessuk.com or tweet @DigitalSisters

Cyber Safety: Social Media, Cyberbullying and Sexting (Year 10 Presentation)

This is a copy of a presentation I gave to Year 10 students on Cyber Safety. It covers social media, cyberbullying and sexting. Although this is heavy going I think it is still important when talking about this subject matter that you also talk about how positive social media can be, when used appropriately.

 

The Importance of Students’ Online Reputation: How Can We Help?

Online safety is an important aspects of any students education whether it is delivered through ICT/Computing, PSHE or tutor periods. It is expected to be taught in every school and our students need to be aware of the dangers of the internet and how to behave appropriately. My worry is that we spend so much time talking about the dangers of the internet and social media that we don’t always show our students or in fact staff how positive it can be. A positive digital footprint or online reputation can help our students get into university, get a job or get involved with productive activities outside of school. The question is – how can we develop our students positive online reputation in schools?

Firstly, the increase use of social media in schools would help promote productive use. I am very passionate about it and have written several articles and spoken at confernces on the subject. Embracing social media in schools is the best way for our students to engage with it in a way they previously have not. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook can be used for teaching and learning. For instance, students can be encouraged to tweet about their subject and engage in online discussions with other students and their teacher (using a school account). This is all part of their digital footprint and shows those looking at their profile that they are interested in their studies, which gets more important the older they get.

Blogging is also an important tool for developing an online reputation. It gives students an audience for the their writing that is not just their teacher as they are essentially publishing work online. They could write assignments in the format of a blog post or write about what they have been learning, which could in turn be used for revision. Blogging is also something that can be used beyond classroom studies. Its a great way of writing about things that interest them outside of school. It could be a sports team, music, films, outside academic pursuit or perhaps something that could interest them career wise.

Another fantastic way to improve our students online presence would be to incorporate digital CV’s into career lessons. We should encourage students to publish their CV’s online using about.me, LinkedIn or even using a blogging service like WordPress or Blogger. This will give them another way to sell themselves to colleges, universities and employers.

Using social networks and blogs all fits in with what students are being taught in e-safety lessons. Anything they share needs to be thought about and young people need to be confident that what they are posting will show them in a good light. You only need to look at the incident involving Paris Brown to see the importance of having a positive digital footprint. She lost her job as the first Youth Crime Commissioner when it emerged she had posted some offensive tweets on Twitter several years earlier. Teachers have even been caught out because of things they have said online. Our students digital footprint is more important than ever.

There are a number of websites and resources that are useful for helping to teach this. Ollie Bray has shared a useful image that could be used in an assemble on the digital footprint on the GTN resources section. Along the same lines is a great infographic on Edudemic about how different generations leave a digital footprint. The UK Safer Internet Centre website has a great section on professional reputation. It has some great information about online reputation including research as well as tips and advice. Which can certainly be included in lessons or for assemblies.

One great set of resources on online reputation and digital footprint can be found on the LifeSkills website. Once registered teachers can download free lessons and workshops. These contain plans, presentations, worksheets and interactive games for students to engage with. They cover everything from the effective use of social media to online reputation lessons. This will help our students for the future and help them understand how digital technology can help them in further education as well as for finding employment.

The importance of a positive online reputation cannot be underestimated. When our students apply for a job the potential employer will more than likely search for them online. If our students are able to do some of the things I have written in this article, they will be much more desirable to the employer as rather than come across some questionable posts on social media they will find work experience, blogs posts, online CV, a portfolio of work or constructive online discussions. The same works for universities or colleges searching for students who have applied for their institutions.

Students can use the internet and social media to their advantage, we just need to show them how.

Professionalising The Use Of Social Media: Research in Practice (Presentation)

This is the presentation I gave at the Research in Practice annual meeting about Professionalising the use of social media. It was a great morning and I met some amazing people who are really interested in using social media.