Today in EDCI 336, we had Jesse Miller come in as a guest speaker. Jesse started his career by talking about internet safety, but as since moved on from this and is now talking about how people can use technology for educational purposes. Some interesting facts and big ideas that I took away  from Jesse today were:

  • Big brand companies can pay Snapchat to access all their data to see how many users are using their product(s) in any given area at any specific time.
  • Teachers need to encourage parents to connect and engage in digital activities with their children to properly understand how it can be used and how their children are using it specifically, both at home and in the classroom.
  • Your devices listen to you and then choose appropriate advertisements (Google tracks your patience level and tracks how long you watch ads or wait until you can skip them).
  • On any network, IT members can see everything that you have and are doing.
  • As a teacher, I will be held to a higher standard than a lot of other professions, in terms of my virtual footprint.
  • A good virtual footprint is better than no footprint at all.

I feel that I have a good virtual footprint, which is something that I am proud of. It is scary to think that something I posted as a child or someone else posted of me could ruin my career, but I know that there is nothing there to do this so that is reassuring.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this lecture and he helped me to remember that I need to always be very conscious of what I post on social media and what other people post of me. I learned that there is a lot more going on behind the scenes of my screens than I had originally thought. Jesse talked to us about how to be safe on the internet, but more about how to use technology for educational purposes in the classroom. Teachers need to understand how to use various types of technology in order to implement it in their classrooms. He emphasized that technology can be great when used safely and in the right ways⁄amounts.

Competencies covered: tech tools.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash