Occupy Your Digital Identity by Kurt Hochenauer

These are my notes from Kurt Hochenauer‘s breakout session, “Occupy Your Digital Identity,” on March 6, 2012, at the Heartland eLearning Conference at the University of Central Oklahoma. Kurt blogs on “okiefunk.com.” MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. The official conference description of Kurt’s presentation was:

Abstract:Today’s college students and faculty members have their own web-based infospheres, personal tapestries of information they choose to absorb and project. We need to continue a conversation aimed at helping college students and faculty members understand the personal, social and philosophical implications of their constructed infospheres, whether private or public. This ongoing conversation will empower people to create positive digital identities.

I recorded this session with permission from Kurt.

Starting with video “Whitman and Identity”

posted on Kurt’s blog: “Occupy Your Digital Identity“, cross-posted to BlueOklahoma.org

I’ve been teaching online for 10 years now, at the start there wasn’t much support for it at this university
– now that has really changed, LOTS OF support now
– I got interested in “digital identity” early on, although we didn’t call it that ‘back in the day’

I started a blog in 2004 and was interested in how you brand yourself
– how do we imprint ourselves on the internet, what does that tell us about ourselves

Faculty have big disagreements about the basic question: “How much should you share about yourself on Facebook”

I’m into creating learning objects, literary objects
– talking about digital identity still very relevant today

I DEFINITELY AGREE: MOST FACULTY IN MY EXPERIENCE HAVE NOT YET TAKEN THEIR ‘DIGITAL FOOTPRINT’ SERIOUSLY YET

Discussion with a colleague at another university
– they are in strong support for the Occupy Wall Street movement
– I’ve been writing in support of Occupy OKC
– I know this person has an active distain for Twitter, Facebook, and social media
– pointed out important role of social media in Arab Spring: it’s important we focus on this

Another discussion with a student who was asking if she should make an online portfolio
– the only thing which came up on a google search for her name was a “Rate My Professor” link where students ranted against her
– clearly she needed to counter this with

If you are not going to mark yourself on the Internet in a positive way, someone else is going to mark you (and it could be negative)

Googling yourself is an act of survival now, not narcissism

What happens on the internet stays on the internet… forever

dooced: to lose one’s job because of one’s website

Some people might think the right move is to ‘take a pass’ on using social media, but university faculty can’t do this…

What is the difference between oversharing and being a part of a new culture of sharing?

Book recc: Datacloud: Toward A New Theory Of Online Work (New Dimensions in Computers and Composition)

Now discussing both Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street and these events as social media revolutions
– Internet memes important

My point: social media is important and relevant to our work today as academics and citizens

Related, shared video from Alec Couros during this session: WikiLeaks’ Brilliant MasterCard Commercial Parody

We are NOT going back to a world without social media, we need to be as diligent about protecting our digital identity as we are about protecting our house and car

I got some things removed from Rate My Professor who were posted by people who never took my courses, and attacked me politically
– now showing examples of links from a Google search for his name

SUGGESTION FOR KURT (WHICH I SHARED IN PERSON AFTER THIS SESSION): DELETE YOUR OLD TWITTER ACCOUNT @blueok FROM 2010 OR REDIRECT PEOPLE VIA THE ACCOUNT TO YOUR NEW ONE, @okiefunk

Technorati Tags: digital, facebook, footprint, kurt, hochenauer

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On this day..

• Putin and Christian Nationalism – 2022
• Creating Multimedia (enhanced) eBooks – 2012
• Introduction to Digital Storytelling by Alec Couros – 2012
• Academic Integrity on a Digital Campus by Berlin Fang – 2012
• The Emerging & the Extreme by Lee Crockett – 2012
• Friends Don’t Let Friends Use Internet Explorer – EVER! – 2011
• Inspired by OLPC, Nicholas Negroponte and Seymour Papert – 2010
• iPhone SDK brings Exchange support and more – 2008
• In praise of Spam Karma – 2006
• Year of The Hangman Book Blog – 2006