Creative commons licensed materials are materials provided by creators to the public to use without having to seek the creator’s permission due to copyright. Fortunately, such materials are available to be used for educational purposes. These materials, used for learning, teaching, and/or research, are referred to as open education resources. This means the materials are open to the public and teachers/students can freely use these materials without having to seek the permission of the creator. Projects can feature multimedia resources without the student or teacher having to worry about copyright issues.

Given the prevalent use of technology today, I think it’s safe to say all of our students will develop a digital footprint at some point in their life. Unfortunately, too few students truly understand the implications of this and as educators, I think we have some responsibility to help our students learn about their digital footprints. Following is a list of suggestions for teaching children about managing their digital footprint.

  • Teach them about digital citizenship! Just as we have expectations and manners out in public, we should have such manners online too!
  • Consider privacy settings! How far is the information they are sharing going?
  • Don’t overshare information! If you wouldn’t openly share something with the physical world don’t put it online either
  • Just because you ‘deleted’ it doesn’t mean it’s gone. The internet doesn’t forget, when you post something online, it’s there forever.
  • Agreeing to the terms and conditions is agreeing to share your information with that website/app

Too often students have no idea just how far the information they are sharing online can travel. As a role model in their lives, you can help them learn what it means to create a positive digital footprint.

From Unsplash

I find I’ve always been cautious when it comes to what I share online. In general, I’m a fairly shy person and I think that has come out in my social media usage. I typically keep everything I can private and I often don’t feel comfortable sharing any important or specific information online. That being said Jesse Miller’s talk did remind me of just how easy it is to find information about an individual online. I found it served as a reminder to really monitor what I put online. As I said before I’ve always been cautious but it was eye-opening to be reminded that even something like the opinions you favour on Twitter can affect your life and job outside of that twitter account. I think so many people treat social media and the internet with a carefree attitude, never considering the consequences of what they share which is why I strongly agree with the importance of teaching our students what we can about safely using the internet. Something you share online at age 16 may not seem to matter much but years later it could impact your life in ways you never expected.

What I found when I googled my name

A final note, this week we learned how to edit videos to add audio and slow motion effects. Check out this short little video I made using Creative Commons content!

Resources:

Boyle, J. (n.d.). How Should Students Manage Their Digital Footprints?. Tech Thought University.

O’Neal, C. (2007). Creative Commons in K-12 Education: Using and Sharing Students’ Work Safely. Edutopia.