Homewood City Schools has declared October to be Digital Citizenship Awareness Month!
A large part of elementary school education is teaching and learning manners. (Think about the book All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.) This month we are emphasizing that manners extend beyond our personal space to all of cyberspace!Following a common theme presented throughout all of HCS, Edgewood is highlighting good Digital Citizen behavior through morning announcements and classroom and Specials instruction.
But what is this "Managing Your Tattoo"?
You may have heard the buzz term 'Digital Footprint.' But we have come to realize that 'footprints' conjures the image of beach-walking with waves easily and routinely washing away those footprints. What we do online and all of the digital data that is recorded about each of us does NOT easily and routinely go away. There is no 'away' in cyberspace. What we do online is just as permanent as a body tattoo--which can be thoughtful and beautiful OR a big mistake. Body tattoos can be removed or edited but it is an expensive and painful process. We want our students aware that their digital tattoo is just as permanent and revealing about themselves. Now is the time for students to monitor and plan. What they post and text and comment and share will someday be seen by college admissions offices and potential employers and others.
How can you help?
Be aware of what you post and text and comment and share about your children. Those of us born in the 20th Century do not have (many) digital skeletons in the closet, but your children's Digital Dossier might have begun before they were born when you shared their ultrasound photo.
When I first started working at HCS long ago, then Superintendent Dr. Jody Newton* warned us about a new thing called email saying that we should not write something in an email that we wouldn't want everyone to see on a billboard. We are continuing this type of thoughtfulness by advising our students to think: Not only should their online activity be appropriate and worthy of their grandmother's eyes, it should be such for their great-grandchildren to see...because that is who will STILL be ABLE to see it. Our computer screens may be small but the Internet is gigantic and forever.
(*Notice: This post has now become part of Dr. Newton's digital tattoo...and she doesn't even know I'm writing about her!)
