Digital Footprints

My Plan for a Positive Online Presence from David Yargo

My thoughts on living in a world where digital footprints are unavoidable are that it's just a part of life in the 21st century. On one hand, I would love to live a completely anonymous life on the web. It would be nice to reap all the benefits of gathering information on any topic I wish, keeping up with friends and colleagues and networking without having to leave any mark of my own. However, having a digital footprint is simply the cost of doing business on the web. Joining social media outlets and using the internet as a means of gathering information and ideas is a huge benefit of the digital world, but you have to give back a little. I've just accepted that if I want to be "linked in", then I am going to have to accept the fact that certain pieces of me are going to be available to the public. This is not a problem for me or anyone else, if properly managed. Overall, I think that having a solid and respectable digital footprint can be a great benefit for many people.  If you keep a professional appearance in your photos, keep your posts free of harmful rants on any number of sensitive subjects, and share worthwhile information that people can use, then your digital footprint can be helpful in networking with the right people or possibly land you a great job.

What I discovered about my own digital footprint is that it is small and, from a professional standpoint, incomplete. For instance, a Google search of my name only reveals my Twitter handle (my Tweets are protected), my published learning blogs for the EdTech program at Boise State and a few stray Prezi's I created when I was a K-12 teacher. When I did a Google image search, the only photos that showed up were my Twitter profile pictures and my Google+ profile picture. I rarely post anything, including photos on Facebook and I do not allow others to tag me without my approval. That's the "good" part of my digital footprint. I didn't find anything negative about myself. However, my LinkedIn profile is incomplete, my Facebook page is void of any professional references other than my job and education and my blogs are not up to date and they lack information that could serve as a resume builder. My goal in the next few months is to clean up any irrelevant "stuff" on my Facebook and Twitter accounts, complete my LinkedIn profile, and up date my blogs. That will give me a solid digital footprint.

Twitter for Professional Development

Twitter is a social network where you can share your thoughts in 140 characters or less. As most people know, you can follow your favorite celebrity, athlete or political figure. You can also find articles from your favorite magazines, websites and bloggers. What many people do not realize, is that Twitter can also be a social learning network. I am now following five hashtags on my Tweetdeck that serve as a means for professional development. Each hashtag is relevant to me, an educator and trainer who works in the field of educational technology for higher education and corporate training. Below, I have listed the five hashtags, resources I have discovered and what I have learned from the process.

1.  #Edtech - This chat includes educators from around the world who engage in a weekly chat to discuss all things education and share ideas and resources.
2.  #ATD - The Association of Talent Development is a Community of Practice for professional trainers. The ATD hashtag allows to me to keep up on news from the field of professional training and talent development. For example, I am always informed of seminars and webinars that I can attend. 
3.  #HigherEducation - This hashtag is used by people in higher education to share news for students and instructors on the happenings in the world of higher ed. I found that this hashtag is more about the business of higher education than actual learning in higher education. 
4.  #studentengagment - The student engagement hashtag is used by people who value student engagement and student engagement tools and techniques. 
5.  #edchat -  #Edchat is the weekly Twitter conversation that any educator can join to discuss and learn about current teaching trends, how to integrate technology, transform their teaching, and connect with educators worldwide. Participants also discuss education policy and education reform.

Three things that I gained from following these hashtags, thus far, are resources which have served as professional development. This first resource is really awesome because it actually was part of two hashtags (#ATD and #edtech). The article, found here, crosses over both my professional and educational fields. Another cool resource that I discovered via Twitter was this article in the #studentengagement column. Coincidentally, it explains how social media such as Twitter, Instagram and Periscope can enhance student engagement. The third resource that I discovered via Twitter fell under the #edchat column. The blog post, was shared in the weekly #edchat and the author is a teacher. In his post, he shared an awesome matrix with his research-supported "The Rules for Learning".


What I learned most about this process is the value of Twitter as part of my Personal Learning Network and finding where I fit in within a community of practice. Twitter and the use of hashtags delivers a non-stop stream of resources, news and ideas in whichever field or topic I would like. I chose the five hashtags above because they are relevant to my own education and professional development. I found this is much easier than searching the web for articles about professional training or educational technology. The other benefit that I found from using Twitter hashtags, is that the content shared most often comes from people not only in my same career field of ed tech, but they are often in the same position as me. Therefore, the resources and ideas which they share are applicable to my daily life at work.

I learned that by Twitter is another tool or "place" where communities of practice can work together toward a common purpose. By using hashtags, you can easily find information shared by those within you CoP. You can also make it easier for people within your CoP to locate information that you share by using hashtags with relevant posts.

Overall, I think that Twitter is an excellent place for professionals to learn about their craft from other professionals. It is certainly an up-to-the-minute stream of knowledge and ideas that can be found and sorted using Tweetdeck and searching hashtags. It can be a bit overwhelming because the information streams in non-stop and one could never keep up. However, I think that Twitter is just one "tool", in the PLN, If you don't try to take in every single piece of information that comes across your timeline, it is convenient and relevant.

Personal Learning Networks, Communities of Practice and Connectivism: A Creative Expression

Communities of practice, personal learning networks and connectivism. from David Yargo

This is my creative expression. I have created and shared a slideshow that demonstrates my ideas about PLN's, Communities of Practice and Connectivism. The first slide is a non-linguistic representation of Personal Learning Networks. It contains images of social media and MOOC's, which are components of effective PLN's. It also has an image of people all over the world sharing information via computers. The second slide is my non-linguistic representation on communities of practice. The image on the left represents people being connected to one another via the same network. The image on the right has people working together, heading in the same direction, to reach a common goal. This illustrates the definition of communities of practice given by Wenger which she states, "Communities of practice are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor." (Smith 2009).The image on the final slide is a word cloud that includes a list of of words related to connectivism. While this is a linguistic representation, I included it because the list of terms ties all three concepts together. Smith, M. K. (2003, 2009) ‘Jean Lave, Etienne Wenger and communities of practice’, the encyclopedia of informal education,http://www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm.

Beginning EDTECH 543

My initial reaction to joining these social networks is that I already have accounts, but I really have not used them much up to this point. I tend to think about all the things I don't like about social media and that prevents me from using it. However, I think it is a good thing to have a digital footprint for networking and sharing ideas. 

I have yet to use social media for professional development. I have only used platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to keep up with friends and family as well as for my own personal entertainment. I do not have any experience in using social media in my learning environment. 

My expectations for this course are to learn how to use social networks to improve upon my trade, to network and share ideas, and also to provide learning resources to those who need them. I have moved out of the classroom and into the private sector recently and I believe that I can use social media to make connections with customers and people within the field of training.