Exploring+Your+Digital+Footprint


 * Getting in touch with your Digital Footprint**

Do you know what your digital footprint says about you? The goal of this activity is to help you find out. As you investigate what your digital footprint says about you, consider the following questions:
 * Is this the message you want to convey about yourself?
 * Is this how I want others to see/know/discover me?
 * What can I do to take more control of how the world gets to know me?

Are you ready??? Let’s Begin: 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 as oral histories, and computation methods of condensing our digital traces are largely opaque and socially ignorant.
 * 1) __**Google**__ **yourself.**
 * 1) __**Spezify**__  **who you are.**
 * 1) **Check out your online** __**Persona**__ **.**

There are several things you can do right now to begin taking control of your digital footprint. >> 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. >> 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. >> 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. >> While some people use Facebook for purely personally purposes, a growing number of individuals 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 are and what you stand for while at the same time developing and maintaining valuable connections.
 * Begin taking control of your digital footprint**
 * 1) **Create your** __**Google profile**__
 * 2) 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.
 * 3) **Connect with** __**Flavors.me**__
 * 1) **Create a** __**wiki**__
 * 1) **Comment on blogs and in discussion forums**
 * 1) __**Tweet**__
 * 1) **Create a** __**Facebook Page**__

As you complete these exercises, think about the following:
 * What words describe me best: Choose 5-8
 * What is one sentence I can use to share with others
 * Do the images I have selected match the words and descriptions