Week 7 Data Mines, Who am I on the internet?

Photo courtesy of Internet Identity Workshop

I think it is also interesting to see what others can see when searching for me. I was watching a movie once where a character asked another, "Did you Google yourself?" I never knew this, but apparently it is a new trend to search yourself online and see what your web presence is like. I fell into the social hole, and "googled myself." As you have found out over these last few weeks, I am a pretty private person and don't like to have a lot of my information out in the open for all to see and judge. I am also a teacher and coach, and I know all of my students and basketball players are able to google search me and find out certain things. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my web presence is pretty minimal.

I know that as educators in the 21st century we should have a web presence that reflects our classroom and makes it easy for community members to get in touch or get to know me. I am working on my professional web presence but before this class I didn't understand the need for one. My social web presence I wanted to keep as private as possible. I used a variety of the different search engines to see what information was out there about me. I used twitter, google, linkedin, pipl, youtube, Illinois Teacher Salaries, Peek You, and Nuwber. I found a picture of me from high school that was about an inch big. It was the profile picture on my Pinterest. Clicking on the picture took me to my Pinterest page, which didn't give me a lot of personal information. I was able to find my salary from my second year teaching with my First, Middle, and Last name. I was able to find what city I lived in, and the last two cities I've lived in but no personal addresses. I was able to find the school I work at and the address for the school I work at. From there, I was able to find how many years I have been teaching, and a professional educator picture. I found the names of my siblings and my mother that came from Pipl. It took me to my professional Youtube page that had different videos I have saved and created over the past years. My Facebook and Instagram are completely private so when searching for them, I didn't find very much information at all. I was surprised that I didn't find my age anywhere, but I did find my gender.

Overall, I am pleased with how little of my personal presence is available online. In the next few years I hope to grow my professional presence online to a place where students and families can research and use resources. Follow the link below for more information on digital presence and privacy. CLICK HERE