Managing online personas

The management of an online persona with all its different ramifications requires extreme dexterity. For those who care about their career it can be a real headache and hiding doesn't help either. In this case low profile can amount to no profile.

I like this thought provoking article by Rachel Balik:

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/features/way-to-work/IV-Managing-Your-Online-Persona.html

also this collection about teachers stzruggling to separate professional and private lives online:

 http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/Americas/May-June-08/Teachers-Struggle-to-Separate-Private-and-Professional-Lives-Online.html

For students I like the following online sequence of activities to check out 'Naming in a Digital world: Creating a Safe Persona on the Internet. First a summary then the source:

'OVERVIEW

Naming takes on new meanings in digital settings—as students build personas through e-mail addresses, screen names, and online profiles, they can be unaware of the ways that others may read the information they share. Students begin this lesson by researching and discussing their own names. They investigate the role that situation and audience play in how names, such as nicknames or full names, are used. Next, they determine which of their names would be appropriate in a variety of different situations and then apply that idea to email, deciding which email addresses would be appropriate for each situation. Students use an online game to see what they can tell about another person from looking at their email address and then review online safety information. Finally, students choose a specific name that they would (or do) use to represent themselves online and create a profile for this online persona.'

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/naming-digital-world-creating-843.html