Reflection Paper - Positive Digital Footprint

Lauren VanderMause
Ed. Leadership 325

Mandy Froehlich
March 3rd, 2016
Reflection on Positive Digital Footprint
In class we have been talking a great deal about positive digital footprints and the
use of social learning. Before this class, I had no idea what a positive digital footprint
was; let alone, how to create and develop one. In addition, I used social media for only its
social aspect rather than professional development. I was always told to keep my social
media appropriate and clean, but never taught to use it to in a professional manner. The
concept of a positive digital footprint and using social media for professionalism was
something that was almost foreign to me. However, after reading some of the articles in
class and hearing what my classmates had to say about the topics, Ive come to the
realization on just how important it is for me to start creating my positive digital footprint
and social media professionally.
To me, a positive digital footprint is the trail I leave behind digitally. I can leave
this trail through my usage of television, the web, social media, and other devices. I
currently have a digital footprint, but in my opinion it is not one that I feel is worthy of
praise or recognition because I wasnt actively working on it. Now that I understand what
my digital footprint is, I am going to start actively working on making it a positive
footprint. Some specific steps I am going to take to grow my digital footprint were
addressed in the article 3 Steps for Building a Professional Learning Network written by
Brianna Crowley. The article discusses three important steps to actively building my
digital footprint. First, I have to find the professionals. Finding professionals for a PLN
begins by connecting with educational organizations whose mission statements and
resources align to your personal beliefs about teaching and learning (Crowley 2014). To
do this, I can join these organizations email lists or follow them on social media. Second,
I have to find my niche groups, which are comfortable places to gather and share passions
or experiences. An excellent way to build my niche groups is through the use of twitter.
Twitter has many group chats that I could join based on common interests. There are
literally hundreds of Twitter niche groups that hold regular chats. To add these
communities to your PLN, you might attend a few chats a month that push your thinking
and provide you with collaboration and resources around a shared personal interest
(Crowley 2014). Finally, the third step is to find my PLN buddies and mentors. These are
the people that are closet to me and that I communicate or share thoughts with the most.
This can typically happen naturally as I interact with others. However, this is where the
fast majority of my information is coming from, so these people are very important.
They expand your natural tunnel vision, transform your perspective, and encourage you
when rock bottom seems near (Crowley 2014). Therefore, by taking these three
important steps, I can hopefully start to actively build my positive digital footprint.
Although these three steps will greatly help me start actively building my PLN, I
have to make some contributions myself. One way of doing this is by thinking of social
media as a form of learning rather than just as a social aspect. I have never considered
social media to be useful for any reason other than socializing with my friends and others.
However, after learning more about its benefits in education, I realize now that using
social media can be a very beneficial way to grow my PLN. This is because it provides
me the opportunity to explore and have access to a vas variety of viewpoints that support
my ideas or challenge. It is important to explore ideas that support your own ideas, but it
is even more beneficial to explore those that dont because it allows you to become more
well rounded and learn to understand others viewpoints.
One way I am going to use social media to build my PLN is through Twitter. I
have not used Twitter or had a Twitter account before this class. I always felt like it was
pointless because you barely write any information in a tweet. However, once I heard
Mandy explain how she has used it and demonstrated multiple different uses in class, I
began to change my opinion. There are so many different resources out on Twitter that
can help me grow my PLN. I finally created an account and I have started following
some educational profiles such as Ted Talks. This is a start, but I still have a lot of work
to do. However, there is so much information out there on social media that it is a bit
alarming as to where to start. Therefore, I have recalled some points that George Couros
has mentioned in his book and Mandy has reiterated in class. I took these points and put
them into a game plan of my own on how to tackle all the information. First, I will begin
to follow a variety of profiles/people that I have similar viewpoints as. Then, I will
observe what they post and the discussions they hold. After I feel comfortable about the
style, I will post out my own opinions and thoughts in response to others posts. Once I
feel comfortable with this, I will begin to write my own outposts for others to reply too.
Finally, I will explore chats at first I will just watch one, but once I feel comfortable my
plan is to join in.
Overall, I feel my PLN has come a long way from where it was originally. A large
part of this is due to the fact that I am now actively building it. I still have a lot of work to
do, but I feel that after this class and a little more effort, I will have created a PLN that I
will be proud to show off when I am a teacher.
Work Cited
Crowley, Brianna. "3 Steps for Building a Professional Learning Network." Education
Week Teacher. N.p., 31 Dec. 2014. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.

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Lauren VanderMause

Ed. Leadership 325

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