Humanizing Your Digital Footprint

I'm a little late to the party on this one, as this post was heavily inspired by a session I attended by George Couros, author of "The Innovator's Mindset", at the SLATE conference in early December.  Couros' session began when George pulled up his agenda on the jumbotron with an empty Google Doc and insisted the audience share out their thoughts, questions and ideas on digital footprints.  As teachers, we are not used to anything that isn't explicitly laid out minute by minute, but I can honestly say it was refreshing to have the power to raise my hand and contribute to a live discussion rather than sit and get.  When no one raised their hand, he began to hunt down audience member's Twitter accounts and exploit them publically.  His strategy worked very well, causing many teachers to get outside their comfort level and have some reflective conversations with their peers.

George had so many eye opening thoughts about how teachers often keep their Twitter accounts on lockdown and only share a few things they want to show off and give a very specific perception of what the "norm" is in their classroom.  He went on to show samples of teacher Twitter accounts and compared  how the teacher accounts who keep their profiles private and post rarely come off significantly less compassionate or "human" than those who list themselves as a father, mother, wife, hunter, baseball lover, cook, etc. and tweet photos from your personal life.  He also pointed out that if you have the mindset to shut students and families out once you walk out of your classroom door, you're not doing your job.  "When you are a school teacher, your job is 24/7.  You don't get to take that hat off.  Classroom teachers leave their work at the door."

George is a strong believer in using social media to change the world or to simply brighten someone's day.  He had example after example of how Twitter changed someone's life. (I only cried twice)  If you are interested in this idea, I strongly encourage you to follow him on Twitter @gcouros.  George tweets a new question each Friday that requires a GIF response.  He also tweets #yourdailyawwwwww to inspire and share positivity.  George's message seemed like such a simple idea to me, but it has changed how I both view and portray myself as a professional (and human) on social media.  How can you humanize your digital footprint?