What is Digital Footprint?
Simply put, a digital footprint is the record or trail left by the things you do online. Your social media activity, the info on your personal website, your browsing history, your online subscriptions, any photo galleries and videos you’ve uploaded — essentially, anything on the Internet with your name on it. Digital natives like today’s students rarely think twice about putting their names on things online, so their footprints can be pretty wide.
Luckily for us all, most of the major sources of personal information can be tweaked, so we share only certain things with the general public. There are even some third-party bonus tools available to manage the parts of our digital footprints we might not know were there.
For students having grown up in a social/digital environment, helping them see where and how they’re vulnerable may be the most critical step. If they’re not suitably motivated, very little of what you say will be compelling.
But after a little Google searching and social media dots connecting, just seeing the breadth of info about us that exists online is enough to spur them to action.
Examples of Unsafe and Negative Activities
- Be nice: Mean behavior is not OK. Make it clear that you expect your kids to treat others with respect, and to never post hurtful or embarrassing messages. And ask them to always tell you about any harassing or bullying messages that others post.
- Don’t friend strangers: “If you don’t know them, don’t friend them.” This is a plain, simple — and safe — rule of thumb. Let them know that kids who follow friends are generally happier than those who follow strangers.
Steps to be positive and Safe online
1. Be kind, helpful, and understanding
2. Use privacy settings
3. Keep a list of accounts
4. Don’t overshare
5. Use a password keeper
6. Google yourself
7. Monitor linking accounts
8. Consider using an anonymous secondary email
9. At least skim the terms and conditions
10. Know that sending is like publishing–forever
Works Cited
Staff, TeachThought. ‘12 Tips For Students To Manage Their Digital Footprints’. TeachThought, 10 May 2022, https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/digital-footprints/.
Teaching Kids to Be Smart About Social Media (for Parents) – Nemours KidsHealth. https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/social-media-smarts.html. Accessed 29 Sept. 2023.
Personal/Social Competency Reflection
- Some of the ways I work to build and maintain online relationships are always verifying the age or identity of the person i’m talking to. Never send personal information or anything that can compromise your security and privacy on the internet.
- My online support network (ex. Teachers’ TEAMS pages, Tech Leadership Edublog, Career Centre web-site, Library web-site, Centennial school web-site, etc) is helpful to me because they make finding my assignments, books, or things that the teacher says way easier. Its a great way to modernize the school dynamic
- By doing good actions and demonstrating that I have responsability and I am a mature person that can decide the things he does online, I make a positive difference to my peers.