Activity Reflection #3
For this week’s activity, I focused on Internet identity. Internet identity is something I worry about because I am a teacher. Although it is not always possible, I try to make sure that the information my students and students’ parents can find about me on the Internet is valid and useful. I know that my students and parents become curious and may from time to time Google my name or search for information about me through another Internet site. My first year of teaching, I had a parent email my principal and tell her that she had hired a teacher who was not certified. The parent came to this conclusion by searching the certification for my last name from the FLDOE website. She did not know that I my name changed when I had recently gotten married and that my certification was still under my maiden name. With little bits of information that may not true or even be about me, parents and students can jump to drastic conclusions that can frighten them and potentially hurt my career. This is why I take this week’s topic of Internet identity extremely seriously.
In preparing for this week’s activity, I completed the Online Identity Calculator, which involves typing my name into Google. I was pleased to see that the main information about me that was available was my information from the previous school I worked at and my 2 miler race time for the last year’s U Can Finish Race at UCF (this year I am running the 5 miler on Sunday). The two pieces of information that I was not too pleased to read was my address and my relatives’ names and addresses. This seems like personal information, and I do not want all my students to know where I live. I would hope they act responsibly, but a rotten egg on my doorstep after a bad grade is always a possibility if the students know where I live.
Although most is accurate, the information about me available online is not very useful for my students or students’ parents (unless they are planning an egging). In an attempt to create a more appropriate Internet identity and to fulfill the activity portion of this week’s assignment for my class, I created my own Google Profile. I purposefully did not include any specific information about myself as I believe that should be given out in person, but I did give general information and an overview of my teaching philosophy. You can access my online profile by clicking here: My Google Profile
One aspect I learned from creating my Google Profile is how easy it is to share information with the world that could be potentially dangerous. The Google Profile had a template for me to type my answers to the provided questions. Initially, I began to fill out all the information asked… my name, my school, where I grew up, other places I live, etc. I was thinking about how fun it was to fill out and that it reminded me of those forwards people send with all those personal questions that annoy me but I fill out and forward on anyway. Then I realized that giving all this information may not be the smartest thing to do. My sister had her social security number stolen and used to take out a student loan when she was only 3 years old, so I am very careful not to give out too much information so that nobody can steal my identity. Therefore, I deleted most of the boxes and just put in general information and typed information in the bio box that I thought could be useful.
Another important lesson I learned was that if I want my students and students’ parents to be able to find valid and useful information about me on the Internet, I need to put it out there myself. I can’t rely on other sources to portray me as I would like to be viewed. The results from the Online Identity Calculator basically said that my identity was secure, but that the information available was not useful.
In conclusion, I am glad that I created a Google Profile so that students and parents can find valuable information about me. I want to always make sure that I am careful not to give out any information that could cause my identity to be stolen or cause confusion or worry amongst students and parents, but I do feel that it is important to have information accessible for them to view.
Christie,
ReplyDeleteI'd like to start with a WOW! Not only was this a very well written blog (made me really rethink mine actually), but every point was relevant.
I can imagine how upsetting it was to have your principal have to call you in to clarify to a parent that you were actually licensed just that the information was not updated due to your marrige. That can be very frustrating and highly disconcerning to have a parent thinking you are not qualified to teach their child when you are.
I did the calculator too, I'm relevant according to it, because of my 5K times over the last few years being posted. It turns out there is a Canadian actress with my name, so there are a million hits for her. Going to be very confusing for anyone searching for me (which may be a good thing). After that I came to the same conclusion as you, that if we want accurate information about ourselves online we need to provide it (and monitor it) ourselves.
Unlike you I filled in all the boxes in the Google profile tool. I kind of like it, and to be honest I'll be deleting it as soon as the course is over, the one I wish to create for my students and their parents will come later (when I get a classroom) and will be linked to my class web site. I can understand your hesitation being a family memeber of a someone who's suffered identity theft (I worked at a bank for 5 years, I unfortunately had to deal with this every day); but I felt that letting people know where I lived and went to school is public information that you can found through any number of state and local agencies, so I didn't see the harm. I can see your caution though, and I'm rethinking my level of exposure on Google profiles, since I cannot make it as safe/restrictive as my FB is.
I'm really glad I read your blog, it was very insightful and it is making me rethink some of my own points. Thank you,
Alex S.
I can honestly say having a parent challenge your certificate is probably one of the most demeaning issues that a teacher has to go through. I had a similar issue in which my certificate was being switched from temporary to professional, for some reason it did not show on the DOE site for nearly a month. Like you, I ended up with a disgruntled parent claiming I was not certified to teach their child.
ReplyDeleteI also did the same thing on the Google profiles, started filling in boxes for the world to see, that is until I realized that it was for the world to see. So I reverted back to being cautious in putting down any personal information, even down to the school I teach at. Because information is so convenient I want to be as discrete about my personal life. I did enjoy your comment about putting the correct information out for people to see. The identity calculator told me nothing more than some marathon times over the past couple of years. It’s important that educators create a professional online network, then if a parent or student reads something “not suitable” for the classroom other pages such as the “about me” page can provide more insight about probably contradict whatever false rumors are circulating the web about teachers.