Tech and Digital Footprint
Your #digital #footprint can change everything. Many people have learned this through personal experience, some through secondhand accounts, but most adults in 2026 understand the safety risks and effects of Tech and Digital Footprint. (Here is a link to read some experiences of digital impacts.) In Martha Burtis’s article, “Messy & Chaotic Learning,” she details how the web is complex and shaped by its users, constantly gathering information to create an algorithm compiled by our personalized and interacted – with interests. The web is known to be messy and chaotic because it is always changing and evolving at such a rapid pace, which sometimes makes it challenging to keep up with and monitor the content being posted on the web. This is why it’s so important to educate children on the safety risks of the internet.
Reflect
I remember when I was in elementary school, I took my first technology class around 4th grade, which began with months of practice on our animated typing app and many blind keyboard assessments to gauge how many of the keys on the board we had memorized throughout the week, because at that time, this was our first step to learning how to type and ultimately use technology. Nowadays, most kids know this by age 5. Students come into kindergarten with existing knowledge of technology and the web, however, most students are unaware of the online safety risks.
As a preservice teacher, I consider how it is necessary for educators to implement technology into classrooms, but also must teach students how to be responsible online, think critically, analyze information, and be aware/cautious of potential risks. Burtis would further argue that higher education has a responsibility to do so. It is not enough to simply supply students with technology, but we must teach them the correct way to use these resources in a helpful, not hurtful, way.
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