Before answering this question, I would be interested to ask some students at various levels (elementary, middle, high school) if they know and understand what Digital Footprint is.
I used the online Digital Footprint Calculator to calculate my approximate personal footprint:
In this article, Sara Perez simply defines Digital Footprint as "your social network profiles, your web site or blog, your photos shared on an online service, videos you uploaded to YouTube, perhaps even mentions of you in the local paper or your school's web site...."Considering this definition, it is safe to say that most of our students from Kindergarden through 12th grades contribute regularly to their personal Digital Footprint. Therefore I would support the idea that it's never too early present the "reality" of what it means to be active online, especially considering our technology expectations for them.
There can be positive feedback in one's contribution to the digital footprint: For example you were recognized internationally for your humanities' class blog entries. Or the language teacher in your new school views your online Spanish portfolio from your previous school and uses it as your placement into the next level.
However, Sara Perez also addresses the digital
shadow, explaining in her articles that if we are active in creating our digital footprint, our Digital shadow, "... images of you on a surveillance camera, your bank records, your retail and airline purchase records, your telephone records, your medical database entries, copies of hospital scans, information about your web searches, general backup data, information about credit card purchases, etc." is being created indirectly through our actions online. We definitely have less control over our Digital Shadow, which is one more supportive argument to bring awareness to students as early and often as possible.Photo Credit: North Sea (Sankt Peter Ording) Germany by Paraflyer
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