Digital Footprints by Bill Ferriter

April 2011 | Volume 68 | Number 7The Transition Years Pages 92-93

Positive Digital FootprintsWilliam M. Ferriter

A few months back, a group of 7th graders who were studying digital footprintswith the guidance of teacher George Mayo at Silver Spring InternationalMiddle School in Silver Spring, Maryland, interviewed me. "Do you think mostkids know what their digital footprint is?" they asked.

"You're the experts!" I replied. "What do you know about digital footprints?"

The students gave me a definition right out of my worst nightmare: Digital footprints are the trails peopleleave behind when they live online—and Internet predators use these trails to track down careless tweensand teens. "At our elementary school, they really tried to scare us," explained a group member. "It's like theywanted us to be afraid of what would happen if we used the Internet."

Sadly, their definition sounds familiar, doesn't it? Schools—caught up in sensational stories aboutcyberbullying, sexting, and Internet predation—spend an incredible amount of time trying to frighten digitalkids. Although some students are at risk because of careless choices—openly talking about sex in digitalforums, posting inappropriate pictures of themselves or their friends to the Web, or failing to act whenconfronted with dangerous situations in social media spaces—those risks are often poorly understood byteachers, who receive little training about how to effectively introduce Internet safety and new medialiteracies to students (Online Safety and Technology Working Group, 2010).

Invulnerable but Invisible?Scare tactics like those my 7th grade informants described are not only ineffective at changing studentbehaviors (Online Safety and Technology Working Group, 2010), but they also prevent students from seeingdigital footprints as potential tools for learning, finding like-minded peers, and building reputations asthoughtful contributors to meaningful digital conversations. As technology expert Will Richardson (2008)explains:

One of my worst fears as [my children] grow older is that they won't be Googledwell. … that when a certain someone (read: admissions officer, employer, potentialmate) enters "Tess Richardson" into the search line of the browser, what comes upwill be less than impressive. That a quick surf through the top five hits will fail toastound with examples of her creativity, collaborative skills, and change-the-worldwork. Or, even worse, that no links about her will come up at all. (p. 16)

That's an interesting dichotomy, isn't it? While schools are teaching students to worry about theconsequences of being found online, Richardson is worried about the consequences for kids who can't befound online. Educators need to bridge the gap between these two divergent views of how to live in a digitalworld, and two practices can help us do so.

Take a tiered approach. Poke through the Youth Safety on a Living Internet (2010)report, and you'll find that living online can be risky. Committing verbal and sexualharassment—as well as drifting into potentially unsafe interactions with unknownadults—is easier from behind a keyboard. But too many Internet safety programscommonly used in schools assume that all students are at equal risk in digital spaces.The truth is that students who engage in risky behaviors offline are more likely toengage in risky behaviors online.Responsible Internet safety programs are tiered: Although all students receive basictraining about responsible online behaviors, students who—because of psychosocialfactors—are at higher risk in online spaces receive more targeted instruction. As theauthors of the Youth Safety report explain, one-size-fits-all approaches to Internetsafety are "analogous to inoculating the entire population for a rare disease that mostpeople are very unlikely to get, while at the same time failing to inoculate thepopulation that's most at risk" (p. 18).

Help students build positive digital footprints. Whether they're working to raiseawareness of the genocide in Darfur—a project that George Mayo's students tackled(http://stopgenocide.wikispaces.com)—or doing a good deed every day for a month andsharing about it online—an initiative that 10-year-old Laura Stockman started to honorher grandfather's life (http://twentyfivedays.wordpress.com)—today's teens and tweenscan come together electronically to learn about and act on issues that matter.Students who see digital tools as vehicles for collective action around ideas they believein are less likely to engage in risky behaviors online because they see social mediaspaces as forums for learning first and entertainment second. More important, studentswho see social media spaces as forums for learning begin to paint complex digitalportraits of themselves by networking with like-minded peers, joining groups committedto studying topics of deep personal interest to them, and creating products that are anaccurate expression of who they are and what they believe in.Whether we're comfortable with it or not, digital footprints—which Richardson definesas "online portfolios of who we are, what we do, and by association, what weknow"—are an inevitable by-product of life in a connected world. Instead of teachingstudents to be afraid of what others can learn about them online, let's teach them howdigital footprints can quickly connect them to the individuals, ideas, and opportunitiesthat they care most about.

ReferencesOnline Safety and Technology Working Group, Senate Committee on Commerce,Science and Transportation, Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications,Technology, and the Internet. (2010). Youth safety on a living Internet. Washington,DC: Government Printing Office.

Richardson, W. (2008). Footprints in the digital age. Educational Leadership, 66(3).Retrieved from www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov08/vol66

digital footprints can quickly connect them to the individuals, ideas, and opportunitiesthat they care most about.

ReferencesOnline Safety and Technology Working Group, Senate Committee on Commerce,Science and Transportation, Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications,Technology, and the Internet. (2010). Youth safety on a living Internet. Washington,DC: Government Printing Office.

Richardson, W. (2008). Footprints in the digital age. Educational Leadership, 66(3).Retrieved from www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov08/vol66/num03/Footprints-in-the-Digital-Age.aspx

William M. Ferriter (@plugusin on Twitter) teaches 6th grade science in Raleigh, North Carolina, and blogs about theteaching life at The Tempered Radical (http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical). He is thecoauthor of Teaching the iGeneration: Five Easy Ways to Introduce Essential Skills with Web 2.0 Tools (Solution Tree,2010). His latest book, Essentials for Principals: Social Media, will be published by Solution Tree in spring 2011;919-363-1870; wferriter@hotmail.com.