Your Digital Profile

[jimpettiward]

Like Sancha, I’m not sure I see the merit in trying to design a 15 – 20 minute activity for my students – it would take that long to get them into the IT Lab and logged on… ;-(

The activity is designed for a blended context. Ideally it would involve students working together in small groups in a space with IT facilities. Follow up activities could be set to do outside class time e.g. designing a presentation to deliver in next face to face session.

I decided to go for a Problem-based Learning approach.

Name of activity: ‘Pimp your Profile’

Intended learning outcome:  To raise awareness of the importance of taking care of your digital profile and how this relates to career prospects.

Activity description   – A PBL approach in a blended learning context.

Step 1: Give students a problem (they are applying for a job and they know that this employer researches potential candidates online).

Step 2: Students think about and discuss possible issues/problems and what they’d expect to find about themselves online, what the employer would be looking for etc.

Step 3: Individually, students look at their own profile online. What do they find? Make notes then compare with other students in small groups.

Step 4: As a group, find 5 online resources to help with digital identity management, then present findings to rest of students.

Possible follow up activities: produce a short video (or written) guide for students on how to manage their digital profile / Class discussion about digital identity, the rights and wrongs of employers researching candidates online etc.

Time  – the initial activity could be fairly short (although not 15 – 20 mins) but follow up activities could potentially be extended over several classes.

Prerequisites  – Internet access, effective online searching strategies (depending on the results of their search, this could be a springboard for a session on effective search strategies)

There are no particular tools used for this activity, apart from the Internet.  I used a Google presentation just to show the activity, which you can find on the link below:

              Your Digital Profile

 

 

[GraphDesProject]

Jim, I think this is a really good activity and like some of the others I intend to steal it! One of my jobs is to help learners set up blogs for both learning and professional practice (ie digital portfolios) and the new learner’s urge to call themselves and their blog Goth Girl,  Pink Fluffy Bunny and Super Stud etc etc is almost overwhelming! So the pretext for this activity, I feel, is very sound.

Sancha (@GraphDesProject)

[ElizabethECharl]

Jim – I like the concept and the approach.  A good curtain-raiser on digital profiles.

[jimpettiward]

Sancha –  feel free to steal! I chose something about digital profiles as it worries me how little some students seem to think about how they (re)present themselves online. … in some institutions they don’t seem to get much help with it either.

Elizabeth – thanks for your comment. I was interested in your use of Google Forms for the activity – it never would have occurred to me to use it in that way but I like the idea and intend to try it myself.

[GraphDesProject]

I was telling my sons about this and I feel that tasks like yours ought to be started in school. My younger is 11 and he comments on You Tube accounts and I’m always worreid that he’ll end up saying somnething that he has no clue about and it’ll come back to bite him when he’s job hunting.

Sancha

[James Kerr]

A project I worked on with a small group once involved very short video tutorials on different aspects of our university’s learning management system.  One of the videos we produced was how to set up and change profile information.  At first, others did not see the value in this, but later realized that many students were not even aware they had a profile they could change.

[ElizabethECharl]

Jim – I am glad that it has demonstrated another way that Google Forms can be used.

[Author]

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