Reflections on "Vanity Search"

This is my first day of this course for Web 2.0 Technologies and I must say that I am a bit overwhelmed at the moment trying to figure things out. I have confidence that things will get easier as I go along. The first assignment that was posted for this class asked us to take a look at our "digital footprint" by typing our name into the Google search engine and seeing what appears. I was not really surprised to see that not much appeared when I searched for my name. For the most part, there was simply information related to my work and occasionally, a mention of my name in relation to a relative or direct family member. I guess you could say that I do not have a big "digital footprint". When it comes to the use of online technologies for social networking or discussing my daily events, I have chosen not to participate because I am a relatively private person. Therefore, I do not have the typical social media accounts and you most likely will not find photos of myself or my family posted online unless it was done by someone else. I do not have anything against using these resources, I am just not a person that typically uses online resources for more than research and educational purposes, but I am gradually learning more about various learning and educational resources available online. I am sure that by the end of this course I will have developed a better understanding about these tools and how they can best be used within an educational setting. I think that it is important for us (especially those of us in the field of education) to reflect upon the idea of our "digital footprint" so that we can better educate our students on theirs. I think that in today's technology driven society, the use of online technologies/media is so woven into the fabric of the younger generations' everyday lives that they often do not stop to consider the fact that the things that they do online can have lasting effects. I look forward to exploring this idea further in the weeks to come.