Digital Footprint

Common Sense Media has some great resources for teaching digital citizenship.  My daughter is in middle school.  I often look at the feeds belonging to her social media accounts to make sure she is posting appropriately, but also to see what her peers are posting.  It amazes me some of the poor decisions the middle school kids make when they post.  So, I spent this week focused on digital footprints. 

Here is a basic outline of the week:
Intro Video (kids loved that it said BUTTS!)

Common Sense Media Trillion Dollar Footprint Lesson-  The kids were very engaged when discussing the digital footprint of the two candidates.  They really picked up on the flaws in their profiles and posts, and were torn about who to pick. Several said they wouldn't pick either (which is the final decision of the producers.)  The only thing I would do differently next time--- I would show them the candidates letters first, without the other items, and have them make a preliminary decision about who they would pick based on those letters. Then, I'd show them the social media information that the private investigator found, and would see how that information would change their decision.  I think this would make a bigger impression on how important your digital footprint is to you in many areas of your life.

After discussing and sharing their decision about who would be the host, I had the kids use Microsoft Word to create a footprint using inserted shapes.  Then, they added words to their footprint telling what they wanted their digital footprint to look like in 10-15 years (see example below).  I encouraged them to dream big.  They did a great job with the activity.



I wrapped up the lesson with parts of this video talking about their digital dossier.  (Because of time constraints, we watched 2:00-3:45, and 4:50 to the end).  I think the impact here was that their footprint is created by more than just themselves and has been growing since before they were born!

Again, I'm sure there will still be some kids not making good posting choices, but I figure if I made an impact on at least a few then the lesson was a success!

So, whew!, I've made it through another week. One of my biggest challenges is finding meaningful technology lessons that I can tie to our curriculum.  I wonder... what is your favorite resource for finding technology lessons?