Thursday, January 20, 2011

Social Learning Class

     Last night was my first night of my new class called Social Learning.  Our teacher let us know the main purpose of the class is to learn how to share.  Throughout the class, my goal is to "share" on this blog at least one time per week.  The main topics will relate to schools, learning, technology, creativity, and fun.
     My first topic is actually a question I have pondered for some time and would love to hear some discussion about to get a better idea of how I should proceed.  When creating my online presence or digital footprint, what rhyme or reason should I apply to how I name myself when I am creating various accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Diigo, a blog, a Ning, etc.?  My mom has always reminded me of a phrase her father used, which is "Fools names and fools faces show up in public places."  When I think about that, I often think I'd like to remain anonymous, not too mention it would give me a little more freedom in what I write especially when it comes to controversial subjects.
     On the other hand, using my real name would keep it real and force me to display integrity in my writing.  I should be able to stand behind my thoughts, feelings, and views.  One downside to this is a security factor.  When a person has a last name as unique as mine and names his or her location, it is just so very simple for anyone to find out exactly where I live and lots of other information about me.  However, they can do that anyway, so maybe I don't need to stress about it.
      What do you think?  How did you decide how to name your different social networking items?  Did you take into consideration personal branding, your own mission statement, security?  Did you think it through or just choose something and your brand grew out of that?
       For now, for this blog at least, I will be me, Sarah Kroenke.  The views posted here are mine and not those of my family, my friends, or my employer.

3 comments:

  1. I started out using plvitf when I first got my new job (Papillion-La Vista Instructional Technology Facilitator), but I wish I hadn't. I I love what you said about using your real name to create integrity. I completely agree. We aren't going to be at our jobs forever, so whenever I do win the lottery, I'll have to make a change. My problem (in this case...blessing at other times) is that my name is so common. So for now, I'll leave the double life! Great post to start thinking!

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  3. Thanks for posting on my blog, Josh. If I do win the lottery, I will keep teaching, I will just hire another teacher to be my partner. When I interview the person, I will make sure they like to do the things I don't and have really different positive teacher qualities than I do. I will pay them a full salary and equal benefits to myself. It will be great to have two people in the classroom all the time. I can go to the bathroom whenever I want. We will be able to try new things without going insane. The kids will have two people to connect with/to. Maybe if the partner is fun and cool, we can do our comedy sketch each day, playing off one another.

    As far as my original post topic, I'll just have to remember to say things in a nice way, which will be good to help me improve my diplomacy skills for when I run for Mayor of Omaha. :)

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