Week 1-- Digital Footprints

Hey Again,

When asked if I want a digital footprint, my answer was followed as yes. A digital footprint documents what I have done or completed throughout my life, essentially keeping track of everything. Everyone has one from the time of the first ultrasound in the womb until death (Treyvaud, 2008). It is very important to know that you have a digital footprint so you can make it a positive one where people can look up to you through cyberspace. A positive digital footprint means that everything that is seen on the internet about you is confident and affirmative as future employers will be looking on the internet to indicate if you will be an adequate addition to their business. You also have to remember that you are not just typing out your posts onto a computer, but that there is a person reading these posts.

Some strategies to use to maintain a positive digital footprint is to be more true, helpful, inspiring, necessary, and kind in your posts. Also, as said by the website, 11 Tips for Students to Manage their Digital Footprints , not oversharing, using privacy settings, and understanding that searches are social are all qualities of maintaining a positive digital footprint. The relationship between netiquette and a positive digital footprint is that having proper netiquette is key to having a positive digital footprint according to the blog post Six reasons why kids should know how to blog. Things like respecting privacy, avoiding sarcasm, being concise, and using appropriate language are all attributes that ensure you to have a positive digital footprint (Doering, 2013). The connection between the knowledge needed to be a digital citizen and the digital footprint is that you need you know how to respect yourself, educate yourself, and protect yourself in order to create a digital footprint (Ingham et al, 2008-2016).

I have learned that that there is much more to know about digital learning than I originally thought, and that I am ready to start. There are many online web tools that I can use to add to my digital footprint and to help educate me in this cyberspace world. For example, in the future when I hope to open my own business in osteopathic medicine, I can promote it through blogs, twitter, Facebook, etc. I feel that I need to learn more on digital citizenship so I can become more familiar with technology use. I know that it is not new to the technological world and that it is used by educators to help change the environment of students with the growth of technology (Ribble, 2015).

Based on the results from the Digital Driver’s License exam, the areas of digital citizenship that will become my focus in my learning will be the environment around the technology being used, such as chairs and furniture. The environment around the technology being used is important because it will determine whether individual will have trouble straining their eyes, getting muscle cramps, and/or headaches etc. Learning to communicate with different tools and thinking about different web tools is key to understanding this technological world as Shareski (2008) stated in Student and teacher blogging that succeeds.