Why Should Students Care About Their Online Reputations?
by Chris Gustafson
When it comes to their reputations, teenagers are hyperaware. Geek, jock, goth, and other labels are shorthand for the way your students think of each other, and the school gossip network is constantly fine-tuning those labels.
Students know that it's not the positives that get notice from their peers. True or not, a Monday morning story about a student who threw up on the shoes of the Ultimate Frisbee team captain at a weekend party will circulate through the halls and affect a reputation a thousand times faster than news about someone who volunteers at a food bank and turns in every assignment.
Creating a Positive Online Reputation
It seems easier to control an online reputation — you present yourself the way you want to be seen, and there's plenty of room for the details that go beyond a label. Perhaps that's why many teens give in to the temptation to stretch the truth online. Lying about their age, posting a photo of someone else and claiming that identity, exaggerating accomplishments, or bragging about the trouble they've caused are just a few ways students can be careless about their online image, with far-reaching consequences.
You've probably heard about students who couldn't get into the college of their choice, missed out on the summer job they wanted, or ended up on restriction because of text, photos, or videos in their blogs or personal Web sites. To keep their future opportunities open, it's important for your students to protect their online reputations in every setting.
How to Help Your Students Protect Their Online Reputations
Here are a few suggestions about how teachers can help students create and manage positive online reputations:
- Teach your students about e-mailing, blogging, and creating personal profiles in an academic setting. Many school districts provide space for these activities through the software that makes assignments and grades available online. You can also locate blog and e-mail providers that are secure and allow teacher review of all student activity. In middle school or earlier grades, educate students about how to present themselves online by setting requirements for appropriate content for their school account profiles, blog entries, comments, and e-mails to each other. Assign work that will be posted on their blogs, and require appropriate comments. Make it clear how their online work will be evaluated, and be sure to grade their efforts.
- Acknowledge that your students have MySpace accounts or other online profiles outside school. Ask students to compare the information in their school profiles with those they have outside of school. Have them focus on truthfulness, suitable images, positive activities, and appropriate language. Remind students that you won't approve inappropriate or hurtful comments on their school blogs, and that those standards should also apply to their out-of-school accounts.
- Ask students to brainstorm a list of the people they would want to have access to their school or outside profile. A college admissions counselor? A potential employer? Their mom? Members of a scholarship committee? Point out that these people, and many more, have access to what's posted online. Encourage your students to make sure that the information in their profile — or anywhere online, including blogs — is honest and shows them in a positive light.
- Bring to your students' attention news stories about the negative impact of a poor online reputation. Living down a bad reputation is hard enough in a school community; regaining your good name online can be more challenging because information can persist indefinitely.
