Week 3 Blog: Make your Mark

Make Your Mark

Perception.  The one word that world revolves around.  You may be the most hardworking individual, but if your Facebook has nothing but drunken photos... You're going to be perceived as the party animal, and not the working type. Now, who wants that?

      Time to learn about creating a positive digital footprint. So, pretty much absolutely anything you put on the internet, concerning a PLN (personal learning network), stays online forever.  It is important to make sure you are portraying yourself in a respectful and appropriate manner depending what you are trying to get a career in.  In this generation, young adults are so used to using social networking sites as their diaries, and are making a HUGE mistake in doing so.  It is about how you use the sites you are signed up.  Be aware of who you are sharing with and what you post.  Even check your tagged pictures! As I have recently learned in class, many employers are googling their applicants before even checking their applications and calling them in for an interview.  So, take a minute and Google your name. What pops up? If you were trying to hire yourself, would you?

      Now being on the subject of digital footprints, or an online identity.  There comes many positive and negative consequences of keeping up with any type of profile.  Whether this is Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.  This week in class, we were split up into three groups and had to discuss the pros and cons for each of these sites.  My group had the famous picture sharing website; Instagram. We found many good things at first.  How to publicize certain companies, creating an image for yourself, easy to control privacy settings, and it is a nice way to stay in touch with friends and family.  As for the not so good things... being tagged in the wrong photos, bullying is prevalent, false accounts being created, knowing locations of people, and getting profiled.  So we come back to that one word again; perception.  How do you want to be perceived?

      Lastly, with maintaining a profile on multiple sites or just keeping sites organized in general, Chapter 1 of Untangling the Web by Steve Dembo and Adam Bellow is just the right resource.  Throughout this chapter, there were three exceedling good sites to keep track of your sites; almost like bookmarks.  The first one that was mentioned is Symbaloo.  This is such an easy to use and welcoming website! It is set up with a 10 x 6 grid, that makes it more simple. All you have to do is click on a blank box, create a title, pick a design, and click submit! Then you can share them with peers! 

      Next site is diigo, another social bookmarking site. The cool thing about this site, is that it was one of the popular ones from the start.  I think what really peeked the interest with most users was the ability to highlight, comment, and add notes to specific information being bookmarked. While making your own library, you can also search other libraries to collaborate ideas or help with your own research.  Another beneficial factor is that you are able to create lists and it will put the bookmarks in chronological order as well.

      Lastly, there is eduClipper.  This website is generally geared towards students and teacher, but anyone can use it.  Teachers are able to set the controls on what their students can access on this site.  One aspect of this site, is that the eduClipboard can be shared with other users, groups, or even posted on other popular networks.  This allows peers to give feedback, so they can research together and learn from each other.