Vanity Search 2

Every so often I do search my own name on different web browsers.  I do this because it is a lesson I teach in my own classroom and figure I should practice what I preach.  It usually only happens twice a year but I feel like it is still good to see exactly what the public perspective is of you when searching for a new job especially.   Those that are in my circle of friends and family know what is important.  But what if you are tagged in a post that isn't becoming or flattering?  Would you want to know?  I don't know if you could actually remove it but you could go to that social media site and "untag" yourself at least.  I'd like to clarify that I don't really have a fear of anything, yet I check it every so often much like I do my credit scores and ratings.  Remember Farmville?  If you didn't tend to your crops there was always something that would destroy it if you weren't watching.  Well, I simply like to make sure I tend to all things that could hurt or harm me or my family in any way.  

My newest search has changed my online presence a little.  Mostly, it has updated with my newest posts, tweets and some activities.  Since I have also been to several professional developments, those also show as activity.  

I would venture to say that my footprint does better represent me because it is showing continued growth academically.  I love to learn and believe that my posts express that.  Personally, I feel like I am on hiatus due to academic and professional development for work.   In that respect, my personal feed or footprint is currently non-existent.  

As far as changing my footprint, I will continue to live my life as I normally would.  Of course, like most, I would like to be more successful in my career and would love for that to be a contributing factor to my footprint.  More importantly, I will post or share things that I feel are beneficial or helpful to others.  I won't just "look" for something to post in order to increase or change my digital footprint.  As far as changing anything that is already there, I don't have anything that bothers me or that I feel I should be concerned about.  So no removals or changes are needed. Really, I simply want to be remembered for the relationships that I have with people and with my students.  Not just who I am behind a keyboard and what I can regurgitate to others.  In closing, it is important to me, for people to feel and know that I care.  I will continue to monitor and add to my digital footprint because that is a natural course of life for me.  It will change because I live, not live to change my footprint.  

Aggregating Adventure

So, I'll admit, when reading our assignment titled "Aggregating Adventure" I was at first puzzled.  I suppose I wasn't sure what to expect and after the first read, I still didn't know exactly.  I begin clicking on links and soon discovered I knew exactly what they were.  Now, I have never heard of Netvibes or Protopage, but this is what I have referred to as a bookmark manager or dashboard.  That is just my own terminology and have no idea if anyone would ever know what I was referring to if I used those.

I have used www.getwapps.com until they have evidently shut down.  The downside, all of my bookmarks and saved sites shut down with them.  I put in many hours and organizational efforts into perfecting my dashboard using their site.  I was so disappointed when I realized they were no longer in working order.  RIP GetWapps.

I've also tried and used Diigo for some time.  It's a little different because it is more of a list much like the bookmarks on your browser.  In my opinion from use over time, it serves it's purpose but lacks in the ability to personalize your page.  It's like having an apartment you can't decorate.  It serves the purpose but brings little pleasure to use.

Then there is booky.io which allows some customization.   It is sparsely decorated white pages with bits of colors that you can choose for Category headings.  So, in my case I have categories like Web browsers, GAFE sites, Bills etc.  These are basically the headers instead of tabs for the things I use most.  I have it set up, but can't say that I love it.  Just a little plain for me.  One thing I like about booky.io is that it is free and the developers actually ask for input.  They are currently trying to set up a file service for sharing links with friends (or maybe different accounts for all of us teachers!)  I don't know about the rest of you but I think I have seven different gmail accounts for various things.  (One being a junk account for all those forms you have to fill out that get sold off to other companies.)

Next I tried Atavi.com, it seems much like Protopages yet more polished.  It took me a few tries to get this one figured out.  It sort of reminds me of a mash up of a Google Sheet and Facebook because the tabs are at the bottom of the page (which is why it took me a few tries to figure it out!)  But the graphics and backgrounds are customized and look like large boxes (or you can make lists.)  I made groups or tabs and honestly didn't see them at first.   I like it but but haven't put a lot of effort into getting it just the way I like it yet.  Here are some screenshots from Atavi.  Please see the bottom left where the tabs are to help you get the idea of the layout.

Finally, I tried Netvibes without much success.  The reason for my lack of enthusiasm about this site was because I don't follow RSS feeds.  It is possible that at some point in my life when I have more time I will need this.  Now however, it will just make me feel more behind and bogged down.  I struggled with getting through the creation part because it seemed to need the RSS feed info.  I looked at the public sites for samples.  Many were not working or had broken links.  The disaster relief sample that was given to us in our assignment was a little heartbreaking yet wonderful that this site could give hope and help people.  I think it was a clever use of free technology.

Protopages which was what our entire class seemed to like most was definitely user friendly.  It was easy to access, easy to customize, easy to understand.  Therefore, usable.  Here is a link to my Protopage.  Also, here is a link to a Protopage I made for my Newsletter class as I was brainstorming how I will get assignments and information out to the students.  Deadlines are an issue and I want them to all have access to any of the information as quickly as possible.  Please see Protopage VAHS newsletter  I would like to use this as a quick lesson for my students just to show them the different types of bookmarking managers that are available.  I am happy with this learned information and will definitely use it to keep myself organized and information available at a quick click of the mouse.