A digital footprint is the trail you create online. It’s your digital identity that is pieced together from everything you do in the digital environment. A digital footprint will often include passive and active data. Passive being the data you leave behind without even realising it and active being what you intentionally post and share online (GoGuardian, 2020). A digital footprint may include permanent information that may not be easily erased, which stresses the importance of education when it comes to students curating and contributing in the online space.
Retrieved from Youtube
Students who connect, create and network using digital tools are entering into unfamiliar environments as vulnerable, inexperienced users who are attempting to continually create and modify their digital profiles (Wheeler & Gerver, 2015). Students are browsing, messaging, sharing, tagging, viewing and posting all while leaving behind traces (Media literacy council, 2021). These behaviours allow personal information to be stored and accessed by others.
Lesson idea
Brainstorm key words students identify as being important in defining digital footprints, look at a few different definition examples. Students trace around their own foot and write their own definition of a digital footprint within their foot.
A large number of internet consumers (47%) have admitted to searching for personal information about themselves online. The Pew Internet Project in 2002 identified that younger users were more likely to be concerned about their digital footprint compared to older users (above 50), however identified that only (3%) regularly monitored their online presence and have strategies in place to modify their digital footprint (Madden, Fox, Smith &Vitak, 2007). This indicates an opportunity for educational intervention to make a difference in these practices.
Lesson idea
Watch the following video from Common Sense Education and work through the corresponding lesson about Digital trails- What information is OK to have in your digital footprint?
Retrieved from Youtube
Digital footprints are not bad or something to be avoided, anyone who uses online tools is creating a digital footprint, the issue lies in whether the information that is left behind is a good reflection of the individual and if it’s information they want everyone to see or know about themselves both for their own safety and for their personal reputation and those they interact with online. Educators need to understand the importance of healthy digital footprints for students and need to be preparing them for the impact that their personal digital footprint has on their life and future prospects as digital citizens living in a heavy online saturated society.
Lesson idea
Test student understanding by completing this quiz by Be Strong Online
Further resources
Digital Footprints, by melissajohnston
References
Be strong online. (n.d.) What is your ‘digital footprint?’. Be strong online. https://bestrongonline.antibullyingpro.com/quiz-digital-footprint/
Bray, O. (2011, March 20). #ISRU11- We ALL leave a digital footprint [image]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/olliebray/5542813754
Common Sense Education. [Common Sense Education]. (2013, August 13). What is your digital footprint?
. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P_gj3oRn8s
Common Sense Education. (2019, August). Digital trails- What information is OK to have in your digital footprint? Common Sense Education. https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/lesson/digital-trails
Common Sense Education. [Common Sense Education]. (2019, August 9). Follow the digtal trail. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bRZdUtmH8k
GoGuardian. (2020, October). Understanding the digital footprint in the classroom and beyond. GoGuardian. https://www.goguardian.com/blog/safety/understanding-the-digital-footprint/
Madden, M., Fox, S., Smith, A. & Vitak, J. (2007, December). Digital footprints. Pew Research Centre. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2007/12/16/digital-footprints/
Media Literacy Council. (2018, September). Digital footprints. Media Literacy Council. https://www.betterinternet.sg/Resources/Resources-Listing/Youth—digital-footprints
Wheeler, S., & Gerver, R. (2015). Learning with e’s: Educational theory and practice in the digital age. Crown House Publishing