1. Life's not about all the steps you've taken, or all the places
you have been, it's about the footprints you leave behind.

2. Your Footprint
• Is the trail you leave behind in all of your
online activities
• Is created by TV, internet, cellular
phones, banking data, scan
cards, security cameras etc.
• Some parts of your footprint are
available publicly by searching the
internet, others can be found using
other, more difficult methods
• Can affect your
education, career, reputation, privacy
and safety
• Can be good or bad

3. Think about the Consequences

4. Take the test above to find out how big your footprint is. Read the information
along the way, it will help you complete the activity in your student workbook.

5. Your Future at Stake
Read and discuss this article together as a class. How
can the actions of you and your friends online now
impact your future education?

6. A True Story
Alexandra Wallace, a third-year political science student at UCLA, posted a video rant to
YouTube about the Asian students she had encountered in the library during her exams
week. Underestimating the inappropriateness of her timing (the massively fatal
earthquake and tsunami in Japan had occurred only days earlier), her handling of the
sensitive subject matter and the size of her viewing audience, Alexandra's reputation
tanked overnight. Despite quickly deleting her video from YouTube after the onslaught
of comments and phone calls began, others had already copied and re-posted it from
their accounts in droves. Cyberbullies found her home address and sent hatemail and
death threats. They called her so frequently that she had to change her number
multiple times. They flooded her YouTube inbox with response videos and verbal
attacks.
Since then, she's had to withdraw from school, move back in with her parents and and
go into hiding. A simple Google search for "Alexandra Wallace" returns 11,800,000
results, and unfortunately for her, they're mostly negative. What should Alexandra have
thought about before posting that video? How and to what extent has her future been
impacted by her digital footprint?

7. Choice Smart Choice
• “Following”
desired
employer or
school
• Bad language
• Online trail of
your dedication • No privacy or
to causes or security settings
charities
• Liking or following
• Accolades and negative
Awards sites/applications

8. Everything you do with technology is
tracked, before you visit a
site, post, upload, download or share think.
Would you…
…want your parents to see it
…want your grandma to see
…your teachers?
…your school admission officer?
…your boss?
…your spouse?
Once you put something out there, you
can’t take it back.