Who-ogle Are You?
(cross-posted at TechLearning)
My students busted me last week.
After years of telling them to NEVER use their real name, or give out any personal information on the Internet, they just discovered that both my email address and my website address include my entire name. Busted.
I explained to them why I do this: that I work with people from all over the world and they need to find the actual me –not a pseudonym me– and that when I give my email out to people at workshops I conduct, it’s just easier to give my real name. Finally, I told them that I am an adult and that when they are adults they too may need to give out their real identities. They seemed perfectly fine with all of my explanations, but I found myself thinking a lot about it, and trying to remember:
When did I switch from a pseudonym to my real identity on the web?
In the early days of the Internet, I never gave out my real name. I still have an AIM account with my alias from those early days to remind me. It looks silly when I’m talking to people who now know my name. Sure, I did it for safety, but I think there was also an element of this false belief that the Internet was separate from my “real life”. I don’t think I was alone in this. In those early days many of us just read, or surfed, or browsed, or played on the Internet, but very few of us worked on the Internet. This was pre-Web 2.0, so very few of us contributed to the Internet.
Last week I was at the ACTEM Conference in Maine and got to hear Sheryl Nussbaun-Beach deliver an amazing Keynote (you can hear it here). There was something she said that really caught my attention. She was talking about asking administrators if they “Googled” people before hiring them as part of their background check. Most of the people she asked said that they in fact did. Sheryl went on to ask them:
If it’s true that you’re going to Google people and it’s going to impact your decision to hire or not hire… then what are you doing to prepare your students to be Googled?
What are you doing to make sure that they’re “clickable”? … This is going to become more and more important. If you’re not helping them to connect, if you’re not helping them to create, if you’re not helping them to be producers of knowledge rather than consumers of knowledge… then you’re not preparing them for that vita that they’re going to need, for that résumé that they’re going to need in order to be hired in the future.
If employers are using Google to validate or reference-check people, what impression does it give when the search comes back empty? Is that a good thing? Is it a bad thing?
Surely I need to teach my students to stay safe on the Internet, and that mostly translates into the message of staying anonymous on the Internet. But am I also preparing them for a time when they will most likely need an authentic presence on the web? Does my direction for them to stay incognito add to the illusion that the web is still a separate place from “real life”?
At ACTEM I also got the chance to see Liz Davis speak. If you go to Liz’s site, you’ll see a picture of her in a hat with sunglasses on. This is her picture that she uses on Twitter as well. When I first met Liz in “real life” I didn’t recognize her until we were introduced because the photo makes it difficult to identify her. During Liz’s presentation, she talked about this picture and that it is rather funny that it’s become her identity because she hardly ever wears a hat. She acknowledged that when she chose the picture as her image, it was in her early days of her social networking, possibly illustrating her desire for remaining private. As her social networks have grown and she has become more involved in them, this has evolved to wanting to be more transparent. She’s thought about changing her photo but at this point, it may be too late. These images/avatars that we choose to be representations of ourselves become sort of like a “logo” or symbol that is easily recognized in whatever forum we are in. In my Twitter feed, even though the image is very tiny, I can tell when Liz says something. I recognize her logo. Her hat, her sunglasses. If she changes that, might I miss some of what she has to say?
I find all of this fasinating and fodder for thought and conversation. I really have no answers yet to the questions I’ve asked, but hope to hear your thoughts. You can twitter me at: http://twitter.com/bobsprankle or leave me comments in my blog.
At what point did your “online life” become one and the same with your “real life”? When did you switch from pseudonym to real name on the web? What should we tell the students? At what age do we tell them to stop hiding?
10 comments
Good post. It gets to several issuses I struggle with. I recently reset my blogs and have divided my educational/professional posts – http://stevesoko.edublogs.org/ – from my personal/general life posts – http://stevesokoloski.blogspot.com/ because there are at least two of my “selfs” running around in my brain. My life at work is important but when I want to rage on about politics or write a story about the glory of the woods in autumn, or my psuedo-turducken recipe (complete with pictures), I do not want to have that confused with the guy who so brilliantly posted 50 ways to use Web 2.0 in an elementary school. To my friends in the Web 2.o education community I don’t want to be known as the guy who writes about the turkey stuff. And yet is it not all me? Perhaps you guys like turkducken?
I do know that he avatar thing for me changed when I started doing more things F2F. I used a Mr. Met avatar for a long time. At BLC08 I was explaining the avatar and somebody remarked that they thought it was the Pillsbury Doughboy. My real picture went up the next day.
I do think that there is some value in protecting and understanding your online prescence. I have considered buying up the domains associated with my daughters names so that if the time comes it is there for them to use professionally. I think that while in high school and college it might be good to use an avatar and fake name. For them now it is it is all about friends on a personal level, and but I think at some point they will start using the Internet as a professional tool. At that point they will need to be who they will be. I think we all will have that professional voice out there. It will not stop a “friend” from pulling up a high school or college Facebook page and and exposing what Ms. Soko was like when she was known as Sassafrass Sally but it is a step.
And even with my profesional voice I can be stupid. I did a blog post about a CT case where a kid called her Supt a “douchebag” online and was suspeneded (the case was far more complex than that one line summary). I commented that I knew for a fact that at times MY Supt. was a douchebag, my asst Supt at times was a douchebag, the principals I work for could be douchebags, and even I had been a douchebag in my teaching and I ponted out that it was likely we all would be again, probably very soon. At the time I was trying to make a point that folks should get over themselves, but as time goes on I think maybe I should not have called out the entire administrative team of my district, online and forever. I will live with the consequences (if any) of those actions because once you push the button it is done.
Bob,
Great questions and you are right to be concerned about this. We are saying one thing and teaching another. “Never use you real name.” ” Make sure your sites are professional, future employers will look at them.” Personally I started to use real names and specific contact info as the profession demanded.
I think with kids we can help them remain fairly annonomous but continue to cultivate the professional or real life image. After all that is the rub here, right?
Is there a problem with a young person directing the employer to a site? Would seem to me that a quick explaination of your privacy concerns would go a long way towards getting that job.
I loved this post! I’m adding it to my bookmarks to share with my administrators. I think I’ve even got the beginnings of a response blog post brewing. Great things to think about!
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Bob,
Thanks for bringing the issue of privacy to the foreground. I find that concerns about privacy are often a huge barrier to faculty adoption of blogging and networking. Older (for lack of a better word) faculty are often uncomfortable with the idea of sharing information with people they don’t know.
As you pointed out, my own feelings of privacy have changed dramatically as my network has grown. As I meet people in my network face to face I feel more inclined to share the real “me” with them.
Ironically, at Educon last year I wore a baseball hat and that is how people knew who I was.
Steve – I do like your new avatar so much better. I’m not a baseball person, so I didn’t really understand the other one. Your new pic is so much more you.
-Liz
P.S. I tried to comment on the Tech Learning post and the site is having technical difficulties.
Thanks so much to all for the great conversation. I think we’re in a time of flux where social norms are being adjusted, redefined. This is all so interesting.
Bob
Bob, This is a great post. I remember, years ago, at least 6-8, when our students were publishing PeaceCards to the World. We struggled then, a school id, like grade and teacher initial, student numbers from their class, then initials, then finally we morphed to student first name and teacher grade identifier. Why? I heard David Warlick and Wes Fryer speak about celebrating student work. YEAH! Our students needed to be celebrated as themselves not a number, while still protecting them. So, the cryptic 3Ajordan.jpg was born. Students were happy, parents were happy, I was happy. It is appropriate at the elementary schools to have this type of cryptic ID. At high school I think we are ready as an educated society to have students publish their work as themselves. At middle school, I am still in favor of first name last initial only. Hm, seems like a progression. I do like Kern Kelley’s school where each senior gets their domain as a graduation gift.
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Bob, I think this concept is the same one for teen age drinking. The teens see the adults drink and say if they can do it why can’t I? They really believe they understand the consequences of their actions. And for some they can. Most can not plus the whole addiction process is different than for an adult. Look at Facebook. As adults we know their ability to discriminate is still developing. Like most things as you get older you get wiser. Student social networks develop at a different rate and kind. Do we allow students to use and create their own networks with their real names? Definitely but with good guidance.
As a young adult at the age of 23, this article grabbed my attention – just from the title because I seem to be from a generation that “Googles” everything, and I do mean everything! I have a Facebook and MySpace account that I created in college..where I use my first name and post photos that aren’t degrading or questionable. Also, my AIM screen name always had some part of my name it from the age of 15. I think people that have these “fake” on-line names just don’t want to own up to what they are doing/saying online. As long as the person creating the site is responsible, and there is adult supervision for those under 17, I believe first names are OK to use online…
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