This document discusses the challenges of digital footprints and online identity for young adults. It notes that while young adults are highly engaged with social media, many do not understand how to properly manage their privacy settings or control what personal information becomes publicly available online. The document then examines the issue from three perspectives: an individual student teacher whose photo and story became publicly available online; an educator using blogs and online platforms with students; and professionals grappling with boundaries between personal and professional social media use. It argues that the scale and permanence of digital content online has created new risks and implications that are not well understood or predictable.

2. Highly Visible and Hard to Remove
UBC’s Digital Tattoo Project

3. What is Your Digital Footprint?
 Take a moment to
think about where
you create,
contribute to and/or
consume online?
 Share with the group
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4. How digital are you?

5. Context – Young Adults
 55% of 18-34 year olds have a personal profile on at least one online social network.
 39% of these have posted something on their social networking pages that they regret.
 1/3 of YAs on social networking sites still don’t adjust privacy settings on their profiles.
 Facebook has >500 million active users (as of August 2010).
If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest in the world,
between the United States (300 million) and India (1.2 billion)!
 ~ 80% of young adults (YAs) have their own cell phones (CTIA, 2010).
 15% of YAs report that they've had private material (IMs, texts, emails) forwarded
without permission.
-commonsense.org

6. Recent studies indicate:
”Young adults have an aspiration for increased privacy
even while they participate in an online reality that is
optimized to increase their revelation of personal data."
(Hoofnagle, King, Li & Turow, 2010, p.20)
It’s not that they don’t care, it’s just that they don’t know!
Context
Our abilities and online skills outstrip the
knowledge and judgment needed for this environment.

7. Examples: 3 Perspectives
#1. Individual
#3.Professional
#2.Educator
CU

8. #1. The Individual: Stacy Snyder
 2006: student teacher
called into question.
She was denied a
teaching degree.
 2008: judge rejected
her claim that this
violated her First
Amendment right to
free speech.
 2010: her photo & story
lives on in perpetuity.
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9. Consider your personal view
Discuss:
 What would you do?
 How would you defend/discuss/respond to a
public view of you that was taken out of
context?
 How do you reconcile the different facets of
your identity – public/private,
professional/personal?
Website: http://nyti.ms/dpAcKM
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10. The Broader Context:
The Web Means the End of
Forgetting
 “Societal forgetting”
important.
 Technological solutions:
expiration dates for
data.
 Forgiveness: explore
new ways of living in
digital world.
cu
New York Times: July 21, 2010

11. #2. The Educator: Mr. H
 Offers a blog as support
hub to grade 8 Math
students
 Uses a variety of freely
available online
platforms for students
to create and publish.
 Class accounts are used
and student blogs are
private.
cu

12. Consider your view as an educator
Discuss:
 If you could talk to Mr. H, what would you
want to ask him?
 How might this impact the digital identities of
his students ?
 If you could talk to Mr. H’s students, what
questions would you ask?
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13. #3. The Professional: Teaching
 Toronto District School
Board developing social
media guidelines
 Vancouver Board
deems “friending” and
personal email
“unacceptable”.
 Blurred boundaries
leave students and
teachers vulnerable.
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14. Consider your view as part of a
larger profession
Discuss:
 Are current standards and ethics enough?
 Who do you look for in providing guidelines
around issues related to personal/professional
boundaries?
 Do you feel protected/vulnerable?
cu
Website: http://bit.ly/bTUAxo

15. The Broader Context:
Policy and Guidelines
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http://socialmediaguidelines.pbworks.com/Faculty-and-Staff-Guidelines
The government approach
The collective approach
the practical approach
?

16. Some things haven’t changed…
 Youth are still exploring and experimenting with risky
behavior.
 We still search for social connections and validation.
 People continue to redefine their personal and
professional identities as organizations and technologies
change.
Context
What has changed is the fact that there could very
well be a permanent record of all of this, one
with implications that can't be predicted or controlled.

17. Scale
Online activity takes place
before a vast audience
Candy Coloured Tunnel on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (n.d.). . Retrieved May 6, 2010, from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/atomicjeep/2327546948/

18. The audience can be invisible
and anonymous
Liverpool Street station crowd blur on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (n.d.). . Retrieved May 6, 2010, from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriapeckham/164175205/

19. Content is replicable in a world of…
copy and paste, @RT, forward, share, <embed>
Repeating Shadows on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (n.d.). . Retrieved May 6, 2010, from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonvscanon/1474906347/

20. Access to a greater depth of information
Teamwork, connect, collaborate and network
Community support, share passions
 The art of possibility on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (n.d.). . Retrieved May 6, 2010, from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debaird/178785182/

21. Digital Tattoo Tutorial
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22. Resources
 Digital Tattoo
 Madden, M., Fox, S., Smith, A., & Vitak, J. (2007).
Digital Footprints: Online Identity Management and Search in the Age of T
. Pew/Internet.
 McBride, Melanie (2010)
http://melaniemcbride.net/2009/08/27/putting-the-social-justice-in-social-m
 Rego, B. (2009). Teachers Guide to Using Facebook.
 Richardson, W. (2008, January).
Teaching Civics with Social Web Tools. District Administration,
44(1), 56-56.
 Rosen, Jeffrey (2010) The Web Means the End of Forgetting, New
York Times.
 Quan, Douglas (2010)
Facebook Blurs Line Between Teacher and Friend, Vancouver Sun.
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23. Resources
Class Blogs
 Welcome to Blogging: class intro for elementary students - Sargeant Park Math Zone:
http://bit.ly/du9X1k
 Create a Class Blog (2010)-Edublogger: http://bit.ly/7s2CZe
 Sarah Roy’s Class Blog: http://msroy.wordpress.com/
Images
 Arm and Ink | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (n.d.). . Retrieved September 24, 2010, from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/question_everything/3710548944/
 Candy Coloured Tunnel on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (n.d.). . Retrieved May 6, 2010, from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/atomicjeep/2327546948/
 Liverpool Street station crowd blur on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (n.d.). . Retrieved May 6, 2010,
from http://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriapeckham/164175205/
 Repeating Shadows on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (n.d.). . Retrieved May 6, 2010, from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonvscanon/1474906347/
 The art of possibility on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (n.d.). . Retrieved May 6, 2010, from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debaird/178785182/
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