Go Ahead, Google Me

"Oh, I'll just 'Google' it!"

www.google.com

Google has transformed from a regular search engine to a powerful tool used in common everyday language.  The power of Google and "Googling" things ads a whole new dimension to our technologically based society. And as our classrooms begin to accept this new technology, how will they be affected by Google?

Talking about Google in the classroom offers a lot of different doors.  As a teacher, one could use this opportunity to talk about the validity of websites to teach students not to believe everything they see on the Internet via Google.  A good example or seg-way into this discussion would be to look at different googled websites and have the kids discuss and decide which is real and which is not.  The latest article about a scandal between Martin Luther King and Google is a pretty interesting fact you may want to mention to the class, being age-appropriate.

Another opportunity a teacher has with talking about Google in the classroom is Internet safety as a whole.  This topic of internet safety could be broken down into several different conversations such as cyber-bullying, cyber-safety, personal vs. private information, etc.  Upon thinking about ways to implement lessons on Internet Safety and Google, I 'Googled' myself to see what I would find.  While I'm not in the classroom yet, I am still working which means prospective employers still can Google my name to find out more about me. This is what I found:

1st page of 'Googling': "Tacey Miller"

2nd page of 'Googling': "Tacey Miller"

As you can see, there are quite a few websites that come up that are not me.  The two webpages that come up are my Pinterest account and my EDUCON account.  In the mini images bar, only two pictures of myself come up.  I have several other webpages and websites that I own and operate but they do not come up with you Google me.  I'm actually quite impressed on how I showed up in Google, I feel that if a possible employer were to Google me I would come up as acceptable.  I really like how (on the second page) my EDUCON account comes up.  As a future teacher, when things as career oriented and awesome as EDUCON come up via Google, I feel that it makes me seem educated about the field that I am planning on going into and could possibly score me bonus points.

To me, after 'Googling' myself and evaluating how I want to address internet safety and Google in my classroom I have decided in terms of information about me out there; Quality over quantity. I feel that it is really easy to have a lot of websites and webpages that come up when someone is 'googled' that might not be the best information to have as "public knowledge".  I feel that it is probably best for everyone to limit the number of webpages/sites that can be easily found about them via Google, AND make the ones that do come up really say something about them.  I think that if someone, like a possible employer, were to judge me based on what came up in Google, I like to think that they would think I was a girl who liked to craft and was interested in current events in education. (To me, that's a pretty good representation and it's not far off!)