Vanity Search 2

Just 7 weeks ago I conducted my first vanity search and didn't really find much information about myself. The main things I found at that time were my Facebook and Pinterest accounts along with my profile on our school website and things related to my family. After conducting this search again, I was surprised to find more information related to my name. I didn't feel like I had really added that many new accounts that would make a difference in my digital footprint. This time, my YouTube channel and this Wix blog site came up as well. I'm assuming this happened because these are the two sites I have been most active on over the past couple of months. I have used YouTube much more than I ever did before, now that our school has moved to online learning, and I have been updating my Wix site much more often for my ETEC 527 class.

I feel like these are positive changes for me as an educator because it displays a bit more of my professional side, rather than just my personal social media accounts. I would much rather someone Google me and find my YouTube lesson videos and my educational technology blog posts instead of my personal family photos and silly posts on Facebook.

My students are only 4-6 years-old so they likely won't be using many of the Web 2.0 tools that we have explored in class anytime soon. I'm sure that once they do, they will begin to leave their own digital footprint on the world wide web! My only hope is that they will make good choices as they grow up and leave a trail that reflects positively on who they are!