Closing Reflection: Vanity Search

   Being aware of your internet presence is very important. In the beginning of this class, I performed a vanity search that revealed my presence on a few sites that I was unaware of. I'd completely forgot about my presence on one site, given I created it 9 years ago and was shocked to see my personal information (address, household members, age, etc.) on other sites. 

   It's been approximately a month since I performed my initial search for "Meshayla Campbell" and although my presence has not increased significantly, it has increased some. I believe the reason for this is because I tagged most of my work to the name "shaylateaches." When I google this name, my presence is very well known and I can follow much of my digital footprints. Google, twitter, and glogster are my most popular footprints and they all link to assignments and work done as a requirement for my Etec 597 course.

   I am proud of my new footprints! I believe it fits me well professionally and provides others with a glimpse of who I am as an educational technology professional. I am finishing up my e-Portfolio now and can't wait to see the positive impact that this makes on my web presence!

Aggregating Pages

I really enjoyed learning about aggregate pages and exploring there many features. 

I have never used this tool before and hate that I've been missing out! I explored both Protopage and Netvibes before creating my website. After comparing the two, I decided to use Protopage because it was more user-friendly for me. 

  The dashboard I created is geared towards Educational Technology. I attached a variety of widgets including; my Twitter etec527 feed, this Blog, "shaylaetech527.blogspot.com," Spigot, NY Times-Educator, EdWeek, NY Times Technology, and more. I could see myself using this outside of class because it is very convenient. It brings all of my websites, blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels together. It's a playlist on steroids! I think it'd be a great idea if I created an aggregate site for my students to help them with their research.  By bringing all of the necessary sources to one page, I am certain that my students will be able to easily maneuver the site while choosing useful information for their research. 

The Youtube Experience

This weeks exploration of Youtube was quite an adventure. Although I am very familiar with searching youtube and looking for various videos on DIY, music, movie clips, and more; I have never created playlists on youtube until today. I struggled in the beginning because I was attempting to make "channels" instead of "playlists." I learned a great amount of information and enjoyed watching each video for the various topics (Twitter, Wiki, Web 2.0, Business Education, and Music).  It was very neat and convenient to save these videos in playlists for easy access. 

Check out the links below to view each of my playlists!

Twitter 411: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-YFU61_5mes3iZLwBFZ9ctu5lQC4qs5b

Get Wiki with Me: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-YFU61_5meugwuHB0wXFE_lX-kw_w4sL

The Web 2.0 Experience:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-YFU61_5mevliwZqk6RpakfU-rAaxbLx

The Scoop on Business Education:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-YFU61_5meswvRdjvBEr7DYbB3ChkbJ-

Good Music:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-YFU61_5mevjaVBdjcfo8EDIRPTkXP5M

Twitter Experience

I haven't used twitter in over four years but really enjoyed my reunion with twitter! Of course, the set up has changed a bit since my last use but overall, it is very similar to what I was used to which made it easy for me to maneuver. I installed Hoot Suite and it was quite compelling in regards to its ability to allow you to view all social networks in one place. You can also, schedule updates (included on a calendar and even upload them to a spreadsheet (csv file). I was unaware until this assignment that Facebook, which I use daily allows me to link my twitter account to it. I opted to not utilize this feature because Twitter and Facebook are different volumes of social media. Twitter is more of a constant update and Facebook is more personal to me in which I only post meaningful information to share with family and friends. I enjoyed using #educationaltechnology #edtech #edtec527 and #education on twitter to find useful information. I also began following my classmates and people that I found of similar interests. Twitter is definitely a great tool for any professional to use in order to gain useful information for their field. I am very thankful that my professor required us to use twitter this semester because I doubt if I would have utilized this site again without her. Boy, I would have definitely been missing out on some great stuff! <3

"Meshayla" is a very unique name. While conducting my vanity search, I was easily able to track my digital footprint. A digital footprint is a representation of your online brand. This could be a pro and a con; depending upon how I utilize my social networks. I personally choose to be very selective in what I say, do, and post on Social Media because I value having a positive image. Fortunately, I did not find any passive footprints (except Whitepages) but I did find an older active account that I haven't used in over 8 years. I am currently working on contacting the website's admin to delete this page. The active accounts that I currently use (Indeed, Linked In, Oil Pro, Google, and Tyler AKA 1908 (my sorority website)), popped up on the first page.

Educating our students on digital footprints is very important in today's society. The figure below touches the important questions that I ask my students to always "think" about when posting anything online.

Common Sense Media has great videos for any teacher to share with their class over this topic. To view the videos, please click on the following link!

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/digital-footprint