How and Why A Headshot Will Improve Your Digital Image

You've heard the stories.  Raunchy photos that result in people getting fired, kicked off the team or appearing less attractive potential mate.

But what if you could make the images people find, great?  You can with a headshot.  

This is something I discussed with librarians last week in a workshop about taking control of your digital image.  For the workshop, I also was able to secure a teacher with a passion and profession as a photographer to take headshots.

Robert Lieberman gave back to his colleagues and we benefited. I have a lot of serious headshots. I asked him to take one of me being silly. Here it is:

You can help do the same with your students and staff. Barter services with a talented teacher. Work with the photography club to take headshots of staff and/or classmates.  Use a service like Fiverr where you can get a headshot for just $5. 

Digital Footprint - Advice from the Experts at Tech Forum NY #TLTF14

If students want to run for office, run a business, or change how things are run where they live, work, or play, they need to be savvy users of social media. This starts with having a positive online reputation. I had the opportunity at Tech Forum New York to speak with four Innovative educators (see below for faces and end of article for names) from elementary, middle, and high school as well as a district administrator about how to best prepare students.  

Below is their advice.  

How can you ensure your students are well Googled by the time they graduate?

10 Tips to help educators break into paid gigs

Cross posted at Smartblogs for Education

Have you ever been inspired by a great conference keynote speech?  A workshop presenter that your school or district hired?  Do you want to share your ideas, be useful to others, and make some extra money?. Have you ever wondered how that could be you some day?

Well, it can, but it takes time to position yourself to take your show on the road. Below are some suggestions taken from what I’ve seen work for successful speakers and professional development providers.

1 - Know what you want to be known for

Pick your focus. There should be just be one or two things you are known for as the go-to person.  This should guide your identity in all your profiles/bios and there should be keywords that you use that become tied to who you are and what you stand for. 

2 - Engage on Twitter

Find other people doing your work and who are the audience that would invite you to speak.  Know popular hashtags and chats. There is a big community of education thinkers and doers out there who might help you brainstorm. Put the topics you are passionate about in your bio using the hashtags you care about most.  This way when someone searches a hashtag, they’ll find you. For example, if #BYOD (bring your own device) ) is your thing, use that in your bio.  People can find you when they search for those knowledgeable in your area. You can see what that looks like here.

3 Step plan for a digital makeover

Who controls your online identity? Google or you?

If your answer is Google, it's time to take control with this three step plan.

Step 1) Analyze your digital footprint.

Know what the internet says about you.  Think about what you like and what you'd like to change.

Search	Background checks	Social media	Credibility
Google Search Google ImagesGoogle Video Spezify	Spokeo Zaba Search Intellus People Finders	Facebook - Museum of Me Facebook - Year in Review Twitter Cloud Tweet Grader	Klout Kred Stackoverflow

Step 2) Determine a headline. i.e. Passionate about real and relevant learning.

Who do you want to be known as on the internet? Think of this in the context of a headline. This is important because who you are, your brand, is what you'll use to update your image.

Step 3) Update your digital image.

Create your digital resume, profiles, images, and clean up anything you don't want out there using the sites below.

Digital Resume	Profiles	Images / Video	Clean Up
Why a digital resume? Linkedin Profile LinkedIn InMap Vizify	Facebook Profile Titter Profile About.Me Flavors.Me Brand Yourself Google Profile	Images Tagging images Picasa Flickr Video Tagging videos YouTube Vimeo	How to unGoogle yourself - general How to remove yourself from background checks. Remove unwanted images Remove from Google Image search Remove a page or sites from search results

Once you've updated your image, be patient. Change won't happen over night. Think of it as your digital diet. It takes a little while to the see the fruits of your labor.  It also requires maintenance.  If you've followed these three steps however, in about 30 days, you'll be rewarded with an online presence that puts your best footprint forward.

Infographic flyer: What's your digital footprint?

This infographic flyer was created to put important digital footprint information in one place in a graphically pleasing format.  Take a look and let me know what you think. 

What's your digital footprint? Take this quiz and find out!

I developed this quiz with members of my personal learning network (found at end of post) to get students thinking about their digital footprint. The quiz was created at the request of high school students I spoke with who thought the creation of a such a quiz could lead to a smart conversation about ways students can update their digital footprint so that it is one that leads to college and career success.

Check it out with your students and let me know how it goes in the comments below. 

Per popular request, here is a link to the digital version of the quiz. Upon completion, quiz takers will receive a score.  

4 things you need to know to help your students manage their online reputation

We often hear complaints about what students say and do online, but we often neglect to look into educators helping them manage their online reputation. This infographic is geared toward adults, but it can serve as a great starting point for conversations and activities that educators can engage in with students to help them to establish an active digital footprint that represents who they want to be perceived as online.

Why I Let My Kids Have an Internet Presence

Guess post BY GWYNRIDENHOUR | Crossposted at dirt under my fingernails

Eva and Ian using the computer Eva bought with income from her book sales. Those sales have in part been made possible by her website.

Education and technology – it seems everywhere I look folks are talking about it. Should we do more, less? What about virtual schools? Interactive white boards? Cell phones? Facebook and Twitter? Should we let kids be out there on the ‘net? Should we post their pictures? Won’t they be kidnapped??
These are legitimate conversations, and each person has to make these kinds of decisions based on their own comfort levels and according to the needs of the individual child. I know people who are aghast that my kids each have a website with their names attached. I know many others who don’t even blink about it.

The way I see it, there is risk in everything we do. We put our kids on school buses every daywithout seat belts. We let them play contact sports. We drive our cars on roads with thousands of other imperfect drivers (the legal license age here is just 14!!). We fly in planes. Heck, we get up in the morning. I figure you can get injured or killed just as easy staying safe at home as you can if you travel across the world. But personally, I would take the second, far more interesting option.

So yes, I let my kids have a presence on the internet – first and last name and everything. And though I’m sure there are risks involved, the benefits for us far outweigh them. Here are some of those benefits:
I’m going to be talking mainly about Eva’s online presence, because it is more fully developed than Ian’s is currently.  Ian is still developing product for his site; once he has sheet music that bands can use, he’ll be able to connect with people in much the same way that Eva has. We are also still developing his website’s overall message and determining how it will best benefit other kids and musicians.


It Provides Real-Life Motivation for Quality Work
I talk a lot about doing away with grades for my kids’ work and instead providing the same types of motivational opportunities that drive adults. Kids aren’t so different from adults in that respect. Getting an “A” might feel good, but having your story published in a magazine feels better. Eva knows that her books aren’t just going to be filed in a cabinet, but read by dozens and dozens of people, many of whom she’ll never meet. Talk about motivation to produce quality work.

Facebook Timeline: The 21st Century Resume - Available Now!

Educators who are up to the task of preparing our students with the essential tools for success today will want to know that starting now, Facebook Timeline is available to all, so if you haven't gotten it, now's the time to get it. Timeline provides an easy way to rediscover the things you shared, and collect all your best moments in a single place. It is a tremendous resource for any school admission counselor or human resource executive interested in seeing if a candidate is a good match. It's the job of today's innovative educator to ensure their students know how to create an online image that will lead to the school or job of their dreams.  

It is the job of the 21st century educator to ensure students have created a digital footprint that will lead to academic and career success. While controlling your digital footprint is as easy as 1-2-3, unfortunately, rather than prepare students with the tools they'll need to create and develop their online image, boneheads like this teachers' union spokesperson are advising teachers to leave students stuck in the past.

Preparing Students for Life-Long Success is Not Preparing Students for Long Bubble Tests

Unfortunately, in the 21st century education reform has equated to measuring a school’s ability to produce good test takers. But think about it. In real life there are few if any tests to be taken. More than a decade into the 21st century and I have yet to take a test and I don’t envision any being in my future either. How did we get to a point in America where we’re measuring schools by their success in forcing students to waste their time being good at something few will ever need to do in real life?  Could it be that this meaningless time waster is doing exactly what it was designed to do?  

1. Line the pockets of testing companies and publishers who are good at following the money, but know this does little to prepare students for success.
2. Produce compliant young consumers who are good at believing, memorizing, and regurgitating what they are told without questioning authority.

For some it is hard to imagine anything different or better.  There are tools however, like Personal Success Plans or Project Foundry that help schools provide a personalized, learner-centered approach that tracks performance-based assessment and values real world skills.  There are also tools like OurLearningfolio that help home learners and their families do this.  What these tools do is help learners identify their passions and interests and help them engage in real-world, authentic activities to develop them while also providing a framework for measuring success. Completion of an activity doesn’t simply result in a letter grade. Instead it becomes part of an authentic online portfolio that can be used to attain academic or career goals.  

Discover what your digital footprint says about you

Does your digital footprint convey the message you want? If you don't know you should spend time figuring this out. In the 21st century our digital footprint conveys an important image and people should know what that is.  Below are ideas that will enable you to explore and consider if your digital footprint conveys the message you want to share with the world.  It will also give you ideas for activities you can do with your students so they can do the same.


General Internet Footprint
Here are some basics to get you started in discovering what your general footprint is on the internet.  Start your personal discovery and begin reflecting on the questions below.   

• Google yourself.
  Start in the obvious way and just Google yourself by typing your name into Google’s search box in whatever way(s) someone doing a search about you might i.e. John Smith, teacher. Take a look at what you see.
• Use Google Alerts to monitor what others are saying about you
  Sign up for Google Alerts to receive email updates of the latest relevant Google results about you by simply visiting the site and entering your name. You can click preview to see the type of results you'll receive.
• Spezify who you are.
  Spezify is a search tool presenting results from a large number of websites in different visual ways. The site moves web search away from endless lists of blue text links and towards a more intuitive experience giving viewers an overview of a subject. The site mixes all media types: blogs, videos, microblogs and images. Everything communicates and helps building the bigger picture.
• People Searches
  There are several people searches.  Are you listed?  Here are some common ones to check. http://www.zabasearch.com | http://pipl.com  |  www.123people.com
  While the initial reaction by some when they discover they are listed is concern, keep in mind that people have been listed in phone books for a very long time. There is no evidence that having this information available is cause for concern. Instead, the primary cause of danger is rarely by strangers.  Instead  when it comes to maltreatment of children the number one source is in the home followed by a close friend or family member.  Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children & Families Child Maltreatment

Reflect Upon Your Social Media Footprint with Recap Apps 
Recap apps are a great tool for teachers to get to know students and for students to get to know each other.  It provides a vehicle for students to reflect upon what messages they are sharing with their friends over the past year. You may want to ask students to create a status collage of what they might want their message to be in the new year or ask them what their photos may represent. It also provides a fantastic way for students to get ideas for further sharing and publishing about the topic they are most expert in...themselves.

1. Twitter
• Reflect upon what you are saying with a cloud at http://tweetcloud.com and enter your username.
  Note:  If you don’t have a Twitter account sign up.  Make a cloud searching other people or current events on Twitter.
2. Facebook
   Note:  If you don’t have a Facebook Account partner with someone who does so you can understand what this looks like.  
• Create a cloud at http://statuscloud.icodeforlove.com
• Look at your year of photos on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/my-year-in-photos
• Check out the museum of me http://www.intel.com/museumofme/r/index.htm  

Your Digital Footprint Analysis.

• What are proud of?
• What are you surprised to see?  
• Is there anything you are embarrassed about?
• What might you want to change or do in the future to ensure your footprint accurately represents the picture you want to convey?

Suggested activities 
What activities might you do with young people?

• Personal Narrative
• Have students write a memoir based on their status collages or pictures. They may pick one update/picture or build upon a theme.
• Have students create a year in review video highlighting their status collage updates or their year in photos.
• Have students create one, or a number of, personal narrative audio cast or Voki based on their status collage updates.
• Team building ideas to help students learn and connect.
• Have students print out their recap app and let students identify which belongs to which student. With the photo app, you may want to count how many other schoolmates are in each student's collage.
• Have students tag their recap app in Flickr using a teacher created account and in the comment box either place a recap app narrative or use the comment box to guess who the app belongs to.
• Have student compare and contrast their recap app. They could write a narrative explaining what they have in common and might never have in common with another class member.
• Have students place their app as a note on FB and tag 20 of their friends asking them to share their thoughts perhaps with an interesting question i.e. what surprised you, stood out, or could you relate to.
• Arts and Crafts
• Print the recap apps onto iron on paper and make tee shirts with students word clouds on the back. This could even be used as a fundraiser.
• Use the recap apps to decorate a "Year in Review" in photos and words bulletin board.