My digital footprint

I am one of apparently hundreds of Amy Conrads out there, and when I google my name, I primarily find the other ones instead of myself! This is good in some ways, but I would still like to have some sort of positive digital footprint.

I know that in a Google image search, there is one picture of me bowling from an IU Honors Program blog. It's a picture that I personally chose, but I do remember my students finding it and thinking it was really funny; they showed it to me as if it was something scandalous. I think that in reality, it was more a case of them having a hard time seeing me as a real person who did things outside of school.

I am actually currently trying to increase my digital footprint in a positive way. It is occasionally a struggle for me because my instinct is typically to share less instead of more. However, I am finding that I do like sharing the professional side of things as opposed to my personal life.

As for my students, I think they are living in a different world. Some of them may have grown up with an internet presence; nowadays most parents don't think twice about putting pictures of their babies and children online (I don't personally agree with creating an internet presence for children before they are able to understand the ramifications and consent to it, but that's a different topic).

It seems extremely difficult to help students understand the importance of their digital footprint until it is too late. Perhaps learning about the stories of other people might help, but I think that it's more likely to make them think that whatever the negative outcome was, it won't happen to them.

Curating Resources

We all know the feeling of doing lots of research, finding the resources we need, using them, and then forgetting about them until suddenly, we need the same information all over again. Where did it all go? We end up doing the same thing over and over, whether it’s because we forgot we did the work the first time or we cannot easily find it again.

This problem is not just related to online resources; I think it’s more a result of human error and forgetfulness. I always tell my students about studying for my master’s exams, and how I had a huge reading list and read about a third of the books without taking any notes. When the exam date approached, I had a big problem brewing, and ended up reading a lot of the books again so that I could finally take notes and get the information I needed.

Especially now, with such a multitude of resources available for teaching, how can I keep track of everything to insure that I’m providing the best, most diversified experience possible? How do I avoid using an website once and then never again, not because I didn’t like it, but just because I forgot or couldn’t find it again? 

I am learning about various existed methods of resource curation, such as Symbaloo, but I think that ultimately I will have to either make a new habit or use a curation method that I already like. We’re more likely to keep a habit if it relates to something we already do regularly.

I’m playing around with Symbaloo, and I’m not sure yet if I like it or not. It keeps everything organized on one page, but there’s not much context. It’s fine if I can remember more or less what I put on it and why, but it can feel overwhelming and yet also bland when I look at someone else’s Symbaloo. What are all of those links? Why do I care? How do I know which link is most likely to have something that interests me?

I tend to either need something very visual (with a picture to jog my memory - hence the usefulness of Pinterest) or very text-driven (a link with a written description, a document, an online forum). I’m noticing that things that are somewhat “in-between” don’t capture my interest, and increase the likelihood that I’ll forget.

However, the essential thing is that I must absolutely keep track of my resources. I know that if I find something and don’t make a note of it, I will definitely, for sure forget! My personal method is a mix of Goodreads for books (whether it’s reading for pleasure or for personal/professional development), Pinterest for visuals, and plain old GoogleDrive for my big blocks of text. For finding resources and important information, I prefer a mixture of blogs, Twitter, Reddit, and Pinterest.