This danah boyd post is from a few years ago, but it still rings as true as ever.
Bright people push the edge, but what constitutes the edge is time dependent. It’s no longer about miniskirts or rock and roll; it’s about having a complex digital presence. Naturally, there’ll always be a handful of young people who manage to go through adolescence and early adulthood without any blemishes on their record. Employers need people who play by the rules, but they also need “creatives.”…
My generation isn’t as afraid of public opinion… We face it head-on and know how to manage it. We digitally document every love story and teen drama imaginable and then go on to put out content that creates a really nuanced public persona. If you read just one entry, you’re bound to get a distorted view…
Part of living in a networked society is learning how to accessorize our digital bodies, just as we learn to put on the appropriate clothes to go to the office.
I had an amazingly good time in Toronto last week with the Ontario Teachers Federation, but despite Ontario being a fair length ahead of the change conversation being held here in the states, I was struck by how many teachers struggled with the digital presence thing. Not that that fear is anything new; needing to be Googleable is such a different reality for most adults, much less teachers. But I just still find it interesting that in a room of about 200 teachers, only about 20 indicated they had even checked on their digital presence in the last couple of months.
That speaks volumes about how few are really understanding this shift and the implications for our students. We have a lot of work to do…