Module 7 EDU 776: Digital Tattoos Revisited

I have always agreed that the term digital tattoo was more apt of a description of the permanence of the internet compared to digital footprint. Since almost all of my students now have smart phones and are connected to social media platforms and the internet almost non stop all day, I share regularly that they need to be mindful of what they post online.  

Image Source: Personal Photo from my classroom

I was lucky enough to complete a digital mine on myself in the spring, so there were not that many differences between then and now. When searching for myself on Google, I got the most hits when searching for my first and last name in quotations as opposed to my username. There were 6 pages worth of information and articles. Much of the information pertained to my role as a teacher and a Chicago Teachers Union delegate. There were several articles about my opposition to a charter high school that was being built directly across the street from the high school that I teach at. There were also hits regarding my wedding website and my wedding registry.  

I also did a YouTube search of my name and a speech I gave several years ago against a charter operator popped up, I had not heard myself or seen footage of it, but it's there. The rest of the videos are apparently from a Greek musician with the same last name. From what I have researched so far about myself, I don't think any charter school in Illinois would every hire me! The newest addition I found was my own YouTube page that I created this past spring for another graduate course, this is the first item that now appears when I search my name.  

The next website I checked out was InstantCheckmate and they were able to provide me with my age, the names of ALL of my immediate family, and the two cities I've lived in. Next I checked Intelius and they gave me the same results. Surprisingly, my mother was listed with her married name, not her maiden name, and my stepmother was also listed. Next I attempted PeekYou and it sent me to Been Verified. Very similar information, but you could pay extra find out more in depth information. I thought there would be more information, I was surprised that it was less than I assumed. The most surprising thing was that although I am married, my husband's name does not appear on anything online. This may be due to the fact that I have decided to keep my name and not legally change it. My husband is also not on social media, so there's no where to openly alert people that he's in a relationship with...

I then did a Twitter search and I was mostly tagged in posts from my mother and from the Chicago Teachers Union. However, there were some tags by someone who had attended our Local School Council meeting last fall when we were voting about whether to keep school resource officers or not and the person quoted me several times and tweeted it. I had no idea that was out in the twitterverse. 

Lastly I searched my first and last name on Google and looked at the images. Here are some gems I found: 

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This was from a Chicago Public School hearing from January of 2014 in opposition to a Noble charter school being built directly across the street from my school. 

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This is the picture that is housed on our wedding website, I had not really considered our website 'public' but I supposed anyone can search and find it easily. 

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This was from a community meeting from October 2013 regarding the same charter school that was going to be built across from my school. Pictured is also Alderman Sposato and my former colleague. 

Looking at all of this information is a good exercise not just for me, but also for students too. It's important that they take a good hard look at what they are posting on the internet. Not only is it a permanent record of what they think and feel, many others could be judging them for discipline, scholarship and collegiate opportunities, and job prospects. To what extent do young students have the freedom to post whatever they like? I was recently reading about a case taken up by the ACLU regarding a student who was disciplined for posting something on her Snapchat outside of school hours. The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, which sided with the student and her first amendment rights. 

I created a presentation and log sheet to help my students do a similar data mine but also look at their privacy settings, their digital tattoos, their social media usage, and how it connects to our psychology course. I had students complete this assignment after the A.P. Psychology exam this past May and they were really into it. Many of them cleaned up their social media posts, deleted posts that did not present them in the best light if they were looking for jobs, some defriended people that they no longer wanted to have access to so much of their information, and some chose to tighten their privacy settings on multiple platforms. I got some positive feedback on the mini unit and they were glad they got time in class to work on this -- something many of them wanted to do, but had put it off for awhile. It was a good exercise to do with seniors as they were closing their high school chapters and starting fresh after graduation.