Digital Identity and Teacher Identity

Much like Pernille Tranberg suggests in this excellent TED Talk, it is important to understand who is accessing our digital footprint and how they are using it.  Once you put something on the internet you lose much of your control over who gets to see it.  It is important to keep this in mind when making posts on social media but it can spread into your browsing history as well. Much of our data is mined by corporations and algorithms for various reasons. As educators this becomes increasingly important because we teach technologically savvy students in an age where personal information is only a click away.  In my own time as a student I witnessed countless teachers, unaware of who was watching, share too much or be too open on facebook.  I have also seen fellow students get into tough situations because of what they or someone else posted.  With these memories in my past I move forward with a concept much like Mrs. Tranberg.  I can't control everything about myself on the internet, but I can make my data inconsistent and false when I'm absolutely required to give up some control.  At the very least this throws a small wrench in the data mining system but perhaps more importantly it creates noise between my personal digital identity and the professional identity I want students to interact with.  This noise acts as a barrier and will be less distracting to my classroom efforts since none of it can be tied to the professional identity.  With the professional identity I can dictate who sees it and to what extend.  Perhaps my professional Identity only exists in person and on this one blog, it only needs to serve the purpose of helping to educate my students.  This limited professional digital identity can then be built up and fleshed out in order to interact with my students and reinforce the teacher they know in the classroom.