Comments on: Making Kids “Googlable”

By: Michelle

Michelle — Mon, 26 May 2008 19:19:47 +0000

I have always focused on the negative with my students when warning them about what they post on the Internet. But this brings up some valid points about putting their positive achievements out there so they are available to future employers or schools.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Sat, 17 May 2008 19:08:07 +0000

Mr. Richardson,
Having that chance and risk of being “googlable”, can be openly dangerous. Depending on the information we put online, it can be positive or negative. On myspace and facebook, students put out a open profile of personal information or they share their work on the internet. If colleges do search your work, it can be a good opportunity to show yourself and who you are by the details you show online. It is just a matter of perspective that comes to mind when it comes to good or bad. We all post things online, but being smart about it is essential. We must be careful what we put, where we put, and why we put it. There can be good and unconvincing reasons we post specific knowledge/information on web pages. The thing is, technology has advanced and will advance even more. And the internet certainly is reliable, but we cannot believe everything in our naivve presence, that is put on the internet. The fact is, many things of our own can be accessible.

By: Vanessa Enman

Vanessa Enman — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:57:26 +0000

I find this entry very eye opening. As a current college student, going into teaching I have never stopped to think about the connection between jobs and online searching. I have not thought of how facebook and myspace and other social networks can have a drastic effect on a “first impression”. I think it is a good tool to use when hiring individuals to see if any possitive/negative qualities show, but I also agree with the importance of teaching young students how to create a possitive impression of themselves. I think that late junior high and highschool age students should be well informoed on the capability of online, and the steps they should take to promote a good self image.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:37:54 +0000

Will,
I like your post, it gave me something to think about. A lot of people fail to think about how their Facebooks’ and Myspaces’ can affect their future careers. You are right when you say that most people are more concerned with making sure they have nothing negative about them on the web. I agree that educators should try to help their students not only have no negatives but also have positives. Employers would love to see positive things about their future employees spread across the web. It not only makes the individual look good but also the employer, themself.
I think that maybe educators shouldn’t help make “kids” googable but instead eigth graders and high school students. There is not much to say about little kids on the web, and kids don’t typically apply for jobs until they are in their teens.

By: Tracy Adrian

Tracy Adrian — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 06:58:32 +0000

I don’t have any say in our hiring process, but as our Tech Coordinator, I now do searches in Google, MSN Messenger, G-Talk, Aol, Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. If I find their online presence is less than professional, then I have a private one-on-one with them to encourage them to clean it up.

In the case of one new hire, it was evident on his Facebook profile that he was still partying, and unfortunately had added our students as friends to his Facebook account as well. Somewhere he missed the “googlable” message!

By: LaurenE

LaurenE — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:19:17 +0000

In my personal opinion making kids Googlable is both a good and bad idea. It would be a good idea because it could defiantly show us students and young adults to watch what we put online. For example, not putting too much personal information and no work of yours that is bad. If teachers, collages, and businesses are looking people up online people should probably present them self better than making them look bad. That is why maybe having kids Googlable is a good idea because it can teach us how to us the internet wisely.

There are a few problems though to this idea. If there happens to be too much information about yourself online, false facts, and bad work of yours how do you get it off? Also it is a little creepy knowing that people anywhere can just look you up and find things about you that you probably wouldn’t wanting them to know. I know that if my teachers would be looking at our stuff and what we do online would be weird because our outside life is our personal life and our teachers are only there to teach us not find out the things we do in our lives. That should go with the same with our bosses or collages. Bosses should focus more on what we do in the business not outside of it. Yes they will boundaries and rules and most likely whoever is working for them will follow them. Collages should focus more on the student and their academics not our partying life. Of course most collage students do the same things and they shouldn’t be following up on us all the time by online sources.

Basically I think googling kids isn’t a completely bad thing it just depends what it is being used for.

By: NowlanS

NowlanS — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:11:16 +0000

I think this is a big idea that needs to be addressed more in schools. Many people do not know how to make themselves “Googlable.” I would be one of those students. I have wondered many times of what employers or schools would think if they searched me. I do not always know if what I am posting is a good thing or not and how to change my online portfolio if I find bad things on it. I want to “Googlable”, so that I can not only have schools or employers search my name and find no bad items but to also search my name and find good items in the search. I think that there does need to be some education on how to become “Googlable.” I know to fallow the general rule that if you post something, make sure you are aware that anyone can access it. The only question is from there how do I improve my online portfolio? I do not only want to have a portfolio with no bad things on there but to also have things on my online portfolio that are good.

By: laurenp

laurenp — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:27:10 +0000

Being “googlable” is a scary thought for a young person such as me, who makes mistakes and is growing. It might be a good thing for others to see how someone else grew and learned from their mistakes, but sometimes people do not think that way. How will that affect my future? If I want to go for a job and get goggled and not get hired because of what showed up, I do not want the mistakes made as a child to affect my future. Even though I am not allowed to put my last name online there are many out there with the same last name. I do not want to have to defend things that were not done by me (good or bad). Sometimes it could be a good idea, but I don’t think that is should be done even if there are good things to be found online. There are so many way you could get the wrong information about the person you are goggling especially today with anyone being able to access anything and post any type of information they wanted to.

By: seanb

seanb — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:22:27 +0000

I agree that teachers are not doing enough to help students with setting up an online presence. I myself would like to have a good online portfolio. But sadly, there are things on my online portfolio that would make me seem like a bad job applicant. For example, when I am Googled, it shows a Youtube video of someone with the same name as me fighting another person. If someone saw this, they would think that I am a person who just beats up on others. I would like the video removed, but I do not know if something like that is possible. The problem with Google is that it has such a vast database that people with the same name as you may ruin your reputation. So the problem with Google is that you really don’t know if the person you are looking up is really that person.

The only solution that I see to a problem like this lies on the employer. The employer needs to really know who they are researching. Sites like Monster.com all have job portfolios that the applicant has created. Maybe it should become more of a requirement to use sites like this other than Google.

By: AngelicaO

AngelicaO — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:19:40 +0000

Mr. Richardson,

I don’t really think that googling people to find out more things about them is such a good thing. To me it seems like an invasion of privacy. Some people like to put things on their MySpace that don’t really represent who they are. So when an employer is about to hire someone for a really good job, but then they decide not to because there is a cuss word or strange comments on that persons MySpace it just doesn’t seem fair.

When I read this article I thought it would be interesting to Google myself and see what came up. But mostly what came up was my time for the races I ran in Cross country and the things that are on Ms. Smith’s blog. But what I did find was a project that I didn’t do very well on posted by Ms. Smith. I just think that employers should give people a break and see how they are going to do working with you, not based off of what is on a not very reliable social network.

I know some friends who have MySpaces and put things on there that aren’t who they are at all. They tend to post not very appropriate pictures, comments, blogs, and many other things. But my friends are all very good people and aren’t who they say they are on the internet. They all have really good grades, respect themselves, don’t do drugs or alcohol, don’t cuss, and many other good things. So you see the internet isn’t reliable at all.

By: SamH

SamH — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:13:03 +0000

I found this post very interesting because no one really thinks about the future when they are putting things about themselves online. It is crucial to one’s future to be aware and cautious of the things you are putting online. Looking at the idea of future employers possible doing a Google search on me is interesting because I never really thought that they would do something like this. It makes sense to see if you can find anything, positive or negative, about the applicant; however it is very important for the applicant to know this is possible and to watch what they are putting online for the world to see. In my opinion, it is very important to begin teaching kids how Google works and begin a steady foundation of online information. Kids need to be educated on what is appropriate to put online. Very interesting post!

By: Annie S

Annie S — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:08:08 +0000

I think making kids “Googlable” could be both good and bad. Sometimes, like my teacher has told us, there will be many people with the same name as you, who have bad things about them on the internet. So it’s not fair to be falsely accused of something that wasn’t you. It is good though because if that person had done something very well, and wanted to be Googled, and colleges were looking, or an employer is looking, then it would be beneficial to them. I think that people should be able to take information of themselves off of the internet. How do you take information about you off of the internet? Because if it is life threatening information, like where you live, where you go to school, what your phone number is, you should be able to take that information off. This is an outstanding blog, many opposing view points. Well done.

By: Tom Krieglstein

Tom Krieglstein — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:05:31 +0000

Just thinking out loud here – Linda since you are a teacher you are helping them to not just understand their DI, but also forming it for them with the Wiki page, just as a teacher would form other areas of development. So maybe built into each class should be a way to have the teacher put some of the students work online to help them develop their positive DI.

By: Linda Herbison

Linda Herbison — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:48:35 +0000

Great ideas! I just googled several of my freshmen and was pleased to find our class wiki at the top of most of the lists.

By: Holly Rae

Holly Rae — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:40:30 +0000

It’s just a gut instinct here but I think we should be teaching them how Google works if we want them to be able to use it to shape their own footprint…Obviously this is done at different depths of detail for different developmental levels.

So literacy of the technology itself … SEO, tags, rankings, analytics, facial recognition, sematic applications…tools like ‘lijit’ – the nuts and bolts of why and how Google displays results – these are as important as knowing any and all of the other wonderful ideas mentioned.

Thanks, great post!