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TEEN PACKET

take a quick poll

IntroductionPretty much everything you do online – whether visiting a website, using a search engine, filling out a form, sending an email to a friend, or posting a photo – leaves a trail. This trail is called a digital footprint.

Your digital footprint includes everything you have posted about yourself on websites, blogs, social network sites, etc., as well as everything others have posted about you. This trail of information can be seen by a large, invisible audience, as well as copied and passed on to others. It’s also permanent.

How can your digital footprint affect your future opportunities? In this activity you’ll explore the ways that everything you – or anyone else – posts about you online can affect the impression college admissions officers or potential employers form of you.

DirectionsImagine that you’re on the admissions committee of a college. You’re responsible for reviewing the two students, Markus and Tommy, who have applied for admission to your school. In addition to the formal application (transcripts, test scores, and personal essays) that the students have submitted, you also have a few examples of content that’s been posted about them online.

Now here’s the tough part: The college has room for only one of the two applicants. So it’s up to you to decide who is the better candidate, based on the materials you have.

Using the information below, take about ten minutes to evaluate each candidate’s digital footprint in order to decide which student to admit.

Key Vocabulary• digital footprint: all of the information online

about a person posted either by that person or others, intentionally or unintentionally

• invisible audience: anyone who can see information about you or posted by you online

• admission: being let in or being given entrance

• candidate: someone seeking admission to a school or placement in a job, usually competing with others for the position

• oversharing: when someone reveals too many personal details

How many of you have ...• created a profile on a social network site?

• used some sort of photo-sharing app?

• sent a message or posted a comment online?

• purchased something online?

• Googled your own name?

step 1

Create a Positive Digital Footprint

Activity: College Bound

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Review of Betts ParkTeens love it, parents don’t. Betts Park boasts four baseball diamonds, a soccer field, and four tennis courts. It’s an after-school mecca for kids from Central and Highland High Schools, for baseball, soccer, or goofing off. The fields are in amazingly good condition, with green grass cut close and well watered. But spectators beware. There is no room for people to sit. Park operators say the next step is to install bleachers and concessions trucks. For now, though, fans are forced to sit on their coats or … TO STAND.

Photos: Matt-rex public domain image: URL: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Betts.jpg

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Sports Spots Reviews of neighborhood courts and fields

WELCOME About FAQ Newsletter

RESOURCES More reviews

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Document #: 1 of 3 Description: Post from Markus’s blog, “Sports Spots: Reviews of neighborhood courts and fields.”

Online Documents about Markus Sanders

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Document #: 2 of 3 Description: Screenshot of Markus’s MyBook profile taken yesterday

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Document #: 3 of 3 Description: Screenshot of Markus’s Mumblr page taken yesterday

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Hiffland High Gazette

Freshman starts his own nonprofit to serve kids with learning differences Monday, March 5, 2012 | http:www.hifflandgazette.org

CHICAGO – Freshman Tommy Williams is starting high school on the right foot. Just before entering Hiffland, Tommy founded a nonprofit organization in Chicago called Making Different Special. The nonprofit offers support groups and tutoring services to elementary and middle school kids with learning differences like dyslexia. According to Tommy’s mom, a physician at Chestnut Lake Hospital, Tommy has always been a leader. “When Tommy was little, he was selling lemonade with fruit chunks in it at the neighborhood art fair, when everyone else was selling plain old lemonade. He’s always had bright ideas.” Not a bad way to start out high school. There will no doubt be four promising years ahead for Williams.

– Cris Cross, Hiffland High reporter

Online Documents about Tommy Williams

Document #: 1 of 3 Description: Article from the Hiffland High Gazette when Tommy was a freshman

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Document #: 2 of 3 Description: Screenshot of Tommy’s Twister page taken yesterday

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Document #: 3 of 3 Description: Screenshots of Tommy’s Instapic account taken yesterday

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Use the chart below to help reflect on which candidate you’ve picked and why.

Final Choice: _______________________________________________________________________

Main Reasons for Choice:

1.

2.

3.

What information about the student online makes him

an appealing candidate?

What information about the student online makes you question

whether he should be admitted?

Markus Sanders

Tommy Williams

step 2

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step 3

Share OutTake about five minutes to share your conclusions regarding your candidate choice for admissions. Use your notes from the chart above to make your case about whom you’ve picked and why.

If there’s time, you can also discuss the following questions:

• Did your impression of Marcus or Tommy have anything to do with their friends? If so, did they positively or negatively affect their changes for admission to college?

• Do you think this is a good way for a real admissions officer to make a final choice? Why or why not?

• Think about the different sites and apps that Markus and Tommy used. What kind of privacy settings do you think they might they have, or not have? How easy would it be for someone to find out more information about them through these platforms?

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Watch Oversharing: Think Before You Post. Consider diving into the following questions and activities with friends or on your own.

Discussion Questions1. After watching the video, do you think you might be

guilty of any type of oversharing? Did any of the information in the video surprise you?

2. Why is it sometimes tempting to post bragging status updates? How do you feel when you see other people bragging online?

3. What do you consider “TMI?” Is there a difference between TMI offline when you’re talking to your friends, and TMI online?

4. Do you use privacy settings on all of your social media accounts? How do privacy settings help you manage your digital footprint?

5. Have you ever been in a situation when someone shared something about you that you didn’t want posted online? How did you handle the situation?

Activity Ideas1. Check out the lyrics, and try to add your own verse or two about oversharing online. Focus on the rhythm and

the rhyme.

2. Create your own Top 10 List of tips cautioning against oversharing. Considering making a poster with Glogster, an animated slideshow with Educreations, or a 3D presentation with Prezi.

3. Use Pixton, Strip Designer, or Make Beliefs Comics to create a comic strip illustrating the perils of oversharing.

4. Using the song’s lyrics, preform and record the song, Oversharing. Feel free to add your own lyrics and style to the performance.

5. Get original. What advice would you share? Would it be in a rap, song, or poem? Consider creating your own piece of work and sharing it with others.

Oversharing: Think Before You Post Discussion Questions & Activities

Find the video, the lyrics, and a Top 10 List poster here:www.commonsense.org/videos/oversharing-think-before-you-post

Check out these suggested tools (and more!) on Graphite at www.graphite.org.