Digital footprints can be likened to an actual footprint on the ground. Wherever you go, you leave your mark, or footprint. Digital footprints are left whenever you connect to the Internet, whether it be sending an email, searching on Google, playing an online game or chatting on social media sites.
This web guide educates students and teachers in a primary setting (years 3-6) on how to become responsible digital citizens and be aware of the digital footprints that are being embedded online. Users may explore the different links to ensure that the online you reflects the offline you in a positive way.
Digital footprints reflect who you are as a digital citizen. Ribble (2017) discusses the nine elements of being a good digital citizen. He highlights the need for digital experiences to have a positive impact, to take ownership of our actions that may lead to consequences and to generally demonstrate good etiquette digital manners. Ribble (2017) entwines these nine elements with three principles as guidance. These are being safe, savvy and social. These should be instilled in children from the moment they pick up and start interacting with devices.
NSW DoE (2018) states that all interactions online are a record of a person’s digital footprint, thereby through having more of an understanding users choose and control what they decide to leave publicly online. The following video Four Reasons to Care About Your Digital Footprint (Internet Society, 2016) provides further information for students to learn the importance of digital footprints.
In Europe, policies are being developed to make the Internet a safer place for children. A raised awareness for children has been developed about their digital footprint and how to make their online lives safer. EU Kids Online have developed a program to identify the risks and opportunities in different European countries that implement this program. The target age range is between 9 and 16 years of age. Children and parents are questioned to discover their understanding of the Internet. To understand the Internet is a step towards understanding their digital footprint. The following video is an overview of EU Kids Online: An introduction to the project. For further information visit www.eukidsonline.net
Media Literacy Council (MLC) (2019) explains how a person is perceived in the digital world. MLC gives examples of what a person’s digital footprint looks like, why a person’s digital footprint is important and strategies to make a person’s digital footprint better. Teachers can apply this site as an assessment tool when testing student’s prior knowledge of digital footprints or as a post assessment.
Although most families allow their children to be online, there are also families who don’t give their children permission to access the Internet either at home or at school. Children with no access to the Internet miss out on the learning opportunities offered. They will also lack the ability to develop the skills to interpret unsafe circumstances that they may face when they do acquire access. This in turn may affect their digital footprint during their teenage years and young adult life. Having never experienced the dangers as well as the joys of the Internet, these young people may have trouble coping with online etiquette. A resource that teachers may wish to pass on to their students’ families is TED talk, Parenting in the digital age (Livingstone, 2019). Livingstone states the need for parents to embrace the technology that their children are wishing to be a part of. This helps shape children’s digital lives in a positive way, so that they will have the skillset necessary to work in a digital world in the future.
References
EU Kids Online. [LSE]. (2014, August 9). EU Kids Online: An introduction to the project [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sU25ZIwy1A&t=2s
Internet Society. (2016, January 12). Four Reasons to Care About Your Digital Footprint [Video]. YouTube. youtube.com/watch?v=Ro_LlRg8rGg&t=1s
Media Literacy Council. (2018). Digital footprints. Government of Singapore. betterinternet.sg/Resources/Resources-Listing/Youth—digital-footprints
NSW Department of Education. (2018). Leaving a digital footprint.
digitalcitizenship.nsw.edu.au/articles/leaving-a-digital-footprint
Ribble, M. (2017). Digital citizenship: Nine elements. WebsiteBuilder.
digitalcitizenship.net/nine-elements.html
TED. (2019, July). Sonya Livingstone: Parenting in the digital age [Video]. YouTube. ted.com/talks/sonia_livingstone_parenting_in_the_digital_age
