Managing And Protecting Digital Identities

It started with some tweets.

"You are a vile human being!"

"I can't believe you are allowed to say the things you do."

"I want you dead."

I was hurt, confused and shocked. What had I said or done to make people say these things to me? And they came in a flood. Over and over for several days, several years ago.

Then I started doing some searching of my name. To my surprise there was a person who had the same name as me who holds many hateful and racist beliefs. These tweets were the result of some press coverage he was getting being denied entry to several countries. Many people were coming to Twitter, searching for his name and my feed was coming up because of the same name, of follower count and engagement levels. Even though I had a clearly written bio and links to my websites it didn't matter.

(I am not linking to this person because he is terrible and doesn't deserve the traffic and I am not including the tweets because the people that sent them made a mistake. Many apologized to me privately and deleted the original tweets. Since then Twitter reached out to me to have me Verified so my profile is more prominent in search so this doesn't happen again. This is why I use my middle initial in everything I do. If you search my name with my middle initial the first few pages of search results are of me. And its why I use my personal brand in everything I do as well.)

Our digital identities are fast becoming, if they haven't already, how we are identified in this 24/7, internet-connected world. For many people that we encounter, both online and off, our digital identity is how we are seen and known. Much of it is within our control but some of it is beyond. Therefore, we have to do all that is possible to take control of our digital identity and manage it constantly.

The same is true for the students we teach. For the vast majority of them their digital identities began with the first photo of them shared at their birth and has and will continue for several years to come. As parents we are in control of not only our digital identities but those of our kids as well. As educators we have an obligation to talk and teach our students how to put their best foot forward in this evolving digital world.

4 Ways To Manage Your Digital Identity

What Can You Find About Yourself Right Now? Have you ever Googled yourself? What do you think you will find? You've read my story and I've heard from countless people similar stories. You never know what is out there, either generated by you or by others. Blog posts, social media posts, images from conferences, articles, videos, you might be surprised at what you will find.

So Google yourself. But don't just stop at the first page of results. Look at the images, videos and news. Also use different variations of your name. Different spellings, middle initials, even narrowing results by location. This can give you a good sense of what is out there already. And if there is nothing you have a clean slate to start from.

And you have to do this often. But why not put the power of search to your advantage. I love Google Alerts for this. I can set up tons of different searches for my name, brand, books, anything really and the results are delivered to my inbox each day.

Take Control Of Yourself! Now that you have googled yourself and seen just what is out there it's time to take control. Some simple things you can do:

• Write a bio-If you don't have one, write one! You never know when you'll need it. And write several different variations. 50/75/100 words are perfect for conference session proposals and social media. Over 100 for anything else you want to use it for. Then you want to use that same bio anywhere there is a place for it. 
• Get a headshot-Don't waste your money on professional headshots (unless you have a photog friend). Your mobile device will take images at high enough resolutions you can get great images. You just need a friend to take the photos for you. And you don't have to make them cheesy. Yes we know you like to climb trees but we just care what you look like. In fact my current headshot I use everywhere is one taken by a dear friend that wasn't even set up as headshot. It just worked out that way. 
• Get a landing page- Set up a personal website or single landing page. About.me is great for this. It's a simple webpage that you can customize with your bio, image and links to anything you want anyone to know about you. 

Now you can use all these across the apps and sites you use like Twitter, your blog, your website, resume, anywhere you want people to find out who you are. And the more you use them, the more they will show up in search. The key is consistency.

Privacy, Privacy, Privacy! Now that you are using these apps and sites you will want to spend time with the privacy settings of each. It's important to know how much of the information you share can be seen and what that service does with your information. Take Twitter for example. You can choose to show or not show your birthday, location or be found by your mobile number. Many of these services also allow third party apps to access your information (Facebook is a great example of this.) You will want to check what apps have access to your profiles and how much. (Maybe its time to revoke access of Farmville from your Facebook page.)

Privacy policies are full of legal jargon but you should know what is happening to your (and students) data, your images and your information before you use anything. (Perhaps we could all learn from a recent app that, if you used it, now has the rights to use your image any time, anywhere, forever, just by loading an image into it.) Review these policies and talk to kids about them too. They need to know how their data, images and information are used both in the classroom and outside.

Share, Share, Share! A great way for you to get going is to not only set up bios and headshots and landing pages but also contribute to the wider body of knowledge. Start a blog and share what you are doing in your classroom, what you are learning and reading or ideas you have. Participating in Twitter chats or anything you post on social media with hashtags can also be a great way to build your digital identity. Did you present at a conference? Post the presentation and/or notes to your website and blog about it! Any thing you create you want to share with the world post it.

The same goes for our students. They need to have the same opportunities as adults to build their digital identities. Those classroom blog posts and comments, make them public. Those digital portfolios, make them public too. Creating a website takes just a few minutes and has become as easy as sending email. Some districts are even purchasing domain names for their students and transferring ownership after they graduate. Several more are giving them their drives and directories as well. All this can be a part of a comprehensive digital citizenship program that teaches students how live the best digital life possible.

Whether we like it or not, the internet is forever. What we post and what we comment on lives on long after we are gone. So while we are here and in control lets do all we can to manage and protect our digital identities. And help our students do the same!

Back To Basics: Device Tips For #BackToSchool

When I was a Director of Instructional Technology it was always a fun day when we could deliver brand new devices to a school. The students and teachers were always excited and ready for the new possibilities ahead.

Then after a few weeks frustration would set it. Students would loose work, teachers had to spend hours trying to figure out which document belonged to whom and we’d see lots of devices in the shop for repair.

The focus on our instructional technology team was on the “stuff” kids could create when we should have started our conversations on the obvious.

Creating cool stuff is great but there has to be basic foundational skills first.

Norms are important when it comes to using technology. (Of course technology allows us to do things truly transformational and we will deviate from the documented ways tools are to be used.) We might believe that students are “digital natives” when in reality they are trying to figure this stuff out just like the adults in the room are. The difference is our approach and mindset. That said, having a basic set of norms in place across classrooms will be important to any successful technology device use.

Digital Citizenship-If there isn’t a long standing conversation and fully-integrated approach to digital citizenship then the validity of any technology implementation has to be called into question. Full stop. Simply teaching one lesson at the beginning of the school year or having students sign some meaningless “acceptable use policy” isn’t enough. There has to be a constant and ongoing conversation about all aspects of digital citizenship.

Digital citizenship is more than just making sure kids don’t cyberbully or know how to spot fake news. There are actually 9 parts to digital citizenship and we don’t take enough time to talk about any of them. Items like health and wellness, actually taking a break from technology. Or raising questions around access and equity so all understand. These are just as important as protecting our personal information and etiquette.

CommonSense Education has an amazing K12 Digital Citizenship curriculum that is free and easy to implement. Lessons cover every aspect of digital citizenship and are designed for every classroom throughout the year.

Naming Conventions-This one bit me and my students more than once. With the advent of Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Microsoft Teams and Google Classroom and other digital platforms it is much easier for students to turn in work electronically. Mine and my students problem was probably one faced by many educators. Because most adults have been using technology for a while now we have developed our own methods of naming files. The problem is many students haven’t developed that skill. (Heck, even getting them to put a name on their paper is still a problem!)

Having a consistent naming convention will not only save you time and energy but will also teach students the same. This works best when you talk about it as a school or a team. Talk about the various assignments and projects you will have students turn in throughout the year. Come up with a constant naming convention that is consistent for all teachers and students. Starting with the date an assignment is due is a visual reminder to the student and the teacher what the assignment is. Include the first initial/last name of the student, assignment short name and the class name and period number. If I am submitting my plant identification notes to my 3rd period biology class that is due on September 1, 2018 I would name it “090118_SAnderson_PlantID_Bio3.” Yours doesn’t have to be exactly like this but work as an instructional team to find what works for you. This saves you from having 30 files all called “Doc1” and also helps with revisions as well.

Folders and General Organization-Following along with consistent naming conventions, teaching students good digital organization skills will be something students (and the adults too) will look back upon and be grateful for. Many digital drives like Google Drive and OneDrive have powerful built in search features that allow you to find what you are looking for if it gets lost. However, if we organize things from the very beginning we don’t have to rely on the search at all. Have students create folders for each class and for each assignment. Use your naming convention strategy to keep things consistent.

Organization goes beyond folders and files. Students need strong curation skills as well to make sure that the other digital information they find can be retrieved. Helping them understand how and having a program like OneNote, Pocket or Diigo to tag and organize sites, articles, and visualizations can save all of us from a lot of frustration.

Saving And Backing Up-Good or bad, saving documents or files has become almost a non event. If we are using Word Online or Google Docs the files are save automatically and everything syncs everywhere automatically. But reminding students that saving regularly should be a part of their workflow is important.

Setting up for offline access can also be a great way to allow students to keep working without having to rely on internet access. If you allow students to take devices home find out how to set-up files and folders for offline access. I was recently in a district talking to some high school students who were taught from early on to sync all their files in their digital notebooks locally to their laptop at the end of every period so that they could keep working no matter where they were. When they got back to school the next day everything synced automatically and went back into the cloud.

Whatever method you use students (and the adults too) should be saving and regularly backing up their work. It’s just a good digital practice to have.

Permissions-With a lot of the creative work that we will have students do using their devices having the appropriate permissions will be key. Students may need access to the camera, mic, USB or other ports. Be on the lookout for those pop up messages. On iPads and Chromebooks they are pretty easy to spot but it can be tricky. Find out the process with your devices to ensure those permissions are set-up for what you need before you need them. Keep in mind if your devices are centrally managed you may have to talk to your technology team.

Care and Maintenance-Lastly, devices are a generally a large investment by any school or district. Therefore making them last, problem-free, should be a constant reminder. And these are good habits to form now rather than dealing with an issue in the future.

Sometimes we expect kids to respect the technology we give them but they need to reminded. Keeping liquids away, not throwing them or just tossing them in a bookbag, keeping the keys on the keyboard, keeping them charged, anything you’ve seen or experienced yourself make for great talking points. Have students brainstorm a list of care and maintenance tips and help them take ownership of their devices.

Stop Blaming Social Media

Recently most of the world has become familiar with the term “fake news.” These alternative facts are pervasive and infect all facets of our lives. From our twitter streams to talking heads on television it seems like we can not escape facts being outright fake, or the perception that they are. What’s worse is most students can’t determine whether what they see or read is real or fake.

We can’t blame those that create the facts.

We can’t blame the media that reports them.

We can’t blame social media or the tools used to access them.

We have to blame ourselves.

Social media didn’t create fake facts and the media didn’t invent fake news. Our lack of understanding of the power and reach of all of these is at the root of the problem here. Social media has long been the scapegoat for adults to blame the ills of kids and students on. Kids can’t focus because of social media. Kids stare endlessly at their devices because all they care about is their social status. Kids today won’t know how to engage and communicate because they only can talk in 140 character chunks or 7 seconds of video.

It’s clear social media has the power to engage students in ways adults do not understand. My 8 yr old daughter can watch kids her age go to the water park or visit Disney World for what seems like hours. And she can comment and engage on what seems like something so mundane and useless.

But to her it matters.

And because it matters to them, it should matter to us.

Social media must be embraced by educators and used in the classroom so we aren’t raising a society of users that doesn’t understand the power, potential and reach it has to both be a positive driving force for change and a technology that can divide and change fundamentally who we are. Moreover educators and adults must be fluent in the language of fake news and alternative facts so that our students understand and are aware of what lurks in their streams and posts.

It’s because of the engagement my daughter has with video and other kids have with other social media and most adults lack of understanding why they do what they do with social media we must redouble our efforts to be better knowers of all aspects of digital literacy. We can no longer blame the technology. Just because we don’t know how to use it doesn’t make it bad. All educators and adults need serious help in being digitally literate and identifying fake news and alternative facts.

So let’s stop blaming social media and fake news and alternative facts. Let’s instead work to better understand for ourselves how to spot what’s real and what’s not so that when students come in the classroom and we empower them to use social media to connect, they are being empowered by an adult who understands the power of social media but also helps them distinguish the real from the fake.

Resources

How To Spot Fake News-Commonsense Media

The Science Behind Why Fake News Is So Hard To Wipe Out-Vox

How To Spot Fake News From Real-TED-ED

Most Students Don't Know When News Is Fake-Wall Street Journal

The Real Struggle Over Fake News-Vice News

So...You Wanna Be A Good Digital Citizen

This is an update from a post a wrote a while back. I've included some new resources to check out. 

Recently, my district began a huge initiative to combat bullying/cyberbullying and to help students become more aware of the choices they make both in their face-to-face lives and their digital decisions as well. There is no one right way or right answer that will stop the problems. However, I do believe that the classroom and our schools are the places where tough conversations need to be had.

I have been collecting several resources and I want to share. By no means is this all the stuff that is out there. And some of it may work or may not. The point is to find something (curriculum, activity, website, video, etc) and start having the conversations, not just with students but with teachers, administrators, parents and our communities.

To start, I want to share this powerful video that was recently shared with me. It's all about the choices our kids are faced with everyday and the consequences of their actions.


So besides the interactive nature of the video (which is pretty neat) there are some tough issues here and no doubt these are some of the digital decisions our kids are making each and every day.

How can teachers and schools help? As with most things, education is key. Understanding where kids are in today's Digital Society can be a helpful first step. PBS did a masterful job capturing teen voices in their series, Digital_Nation. You can hear from teens themselves, parents and other experts as they discuss what it means to be a Connected Kid.

There are lots of curricula out there to use in the classroom.You can do a quick search and find lots of free (and paid) stuff. However, I believe one of the best are the lessons and activities from Common Sense Media. They have a full, K-12, free curriculum you can use and adapt to your needs. There are even alignments to the ISTE NETs, AASL, and the English Common Core.

Another way to show students the power their digital footprint has is to check out a great interactive from The Discovery Channel, Your Digital Footprint. In it users are posed with different scenarios and the site shows the impact of that choice and how their image, information and more are recorded and stored. It's more about awareness and understanding than avoidance.

Here are some more just general resources to check out.

• Open Thinking Wiki-Media Literacy-Alex Couros has curated lots of great information on a wide array of digital literacy topics like understanding where information comes from, combating cyberbullying and more. 
• Digital Citizenship Network- One of the best parts of this site are the Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship. There are lots of great links here too. 
• Own Your Space: Keep Yourself And Your Stuff Safe Online-This free ebook from Microsoft is geared toward teens and goes over many different aspects of their digital lives. 
• Understanding You Tube and Digital Citizenship- Launched recently, Google has created a series on how to be a good You Tube user, including how to protect copyrighted content, how to report misuse and more. 
• Digital Citizenship And More-Looking for more? This site has you covered!

These are just a few resources. I have many more in my Diigo links and you can find that here. I also have a post that I wrote awhile back about Taking Care Of Your Digital Self, that has more ideas on knowing about your online identity.

For me, we need to start having and keep having lots of conversations. Everyday, educators all over the country are asked to use digital tools with kids and increasingly, kids are becoming more and more connected. The earlier we start talking and the more we keep talking, again, not to just our kids but our teachers, administrators, parents and the community, the easier it will be to deal with these digital issues as they arise.

These are some of my favorite resources. What are yours? Or what are you doing to start these conversations where you are? Leave some comments below.