Embracing Our Digital Footprints and Guiding Students to Curate and Reshape Their Own

Next week, Omaha Public Schools will welcome nearly 500 new teachers to our district. During the New Teacher Institute, our Instructional Technology Team will guide our new teachers through a half-day workshop where they will receive essential information ranging from how to access important online resources necessary to fulfill their teaching duties, to technology initiatives happening in our district.

Of course, I’ll be introducing teachers to Common Sense Education, pointing them to our district’s social media guidelines and inviting them to consider both their own digital footprints, and tips for helping their students understand theirs.

This infographic shares tips for guiding students in curating the best content they can for their own digital footprint, and provides educators considerations for how their footprint represents them. The common thread for both students and educators is that, while we know that digital footprints can’t be erased, they can be reshaped to fit a more positive mold of how we want to represent ourselves.

My OPS colleague Melissa Cleaver invited me to create this infographic earlier in the summer (let’s be real, Melissa was also the artistic consultant on this), and the fire was lit again today after a great conversation with my Common Sense colleague Jeff Knutson.