After today’s class, I immediately went online and started deleting and deactivating accounts that I made forever ago. It made me realize how much of a digital footprint we build throughout our lives without even thinking about it. As a future teacher, I know that students will likely search my name out of curiosity, because I’ve for sure done that, so I wanted to make sure that what they find reflects me in a light that I am okay with. For example, I had an old volleyball recruiting profile from high school that I couldn’t remove on my own. I actually ended up calling Bob from Illinois, who works for the company, to have it taken down, which shows how permanent online content can be. This was super eye-opening for me – I made that when I was in high school, and it’s still around.
At the same time, not everything online needs to be erased. There is still content like old university volleyball roster photos and achievements that I don’t necessarily want gone. Sure, they’re outdated, but they’re also not negative; in fact, they highlight moments that I’m proud of! As a future PHE teacher, this could even be a positive, as students may see my background in sport and better acknowledge the experience I bring to the classroom.
During my time as a high school student, it was at the peak of this huge shift in how much adolescents are using technology. Although AI hadn’t taken off yet (thank goodness), we were still navigating all of the new and addictive apps that were coming out (Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok). When discussing online consent and privacy, it stood out to me that when we post on these apps, we never really ask the people we tag or post to. In a high school setting, specifically, this is something that can have real consequences because most students aren’t conscious of the impact consent has in digital spaces. As a future teacher, I want to work digital citizenship into my curriculum so that students are in the know about topics that matter but often fly under the radar. Here is an example of a resource created by Abbey Gillette, an SD 62 teacher.
Overall, from everything we covered this week, my main takeaway was that a digital footprint isn’t something we need to “clean up,” but something we need to shape intentionally. Starting with our students who are the most impressionable as they navigate the ins and outs of digital citizenship.
This Blog Post is an original thought and has been edited for spelling, grammar and fluidity with ChatGPT.
OpenAI. (2026). ChatGPT (GPT-5.2) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/