4 Properties
Your persona in digital spaces is an important consideration for educators. It’s about being recognized in digital places in a professional capacity. Being recognized as an educator and a professional is not new. In Ontario, teachers are recognized by the Ontario College of Teachers. But recognition as a professional in spaces and places is shifting from the physical to the digital. It extends beyond classroom or school locations and reaches into professional learning communities that are evolving and fluid.
Building your public professional persona is about making critical decisions to create a presence to suit who you are and how you want to be recognized. Making decisions about your name, image, locations, and reputation need careful consideration. Safety and security need to be monitored. Your awareness of digital citizenship and participation should be a focus. Educators make decisions every day about their professional digital persona.
For me, it was a conscious decision to get connected, but doing so in a manageable and safe way. My work as an educator provides opportunities to read, write and share information about media production and digital literacies. This can serve as a model for other educators.
As I look for ways to share this experiential learning and decision making with my own students, I decided to ask teachers to talk about their process of building and managing their professional digital persona. An invitation was sent out using Twitter and many teachers responded. A google hangout is planned and questions were developed. The resulting conversation will reflect the diversity in decision making when it comes to participation, managing reputations and building digital identities as a professional in education. You are welcome to learn along with my students as these teachers share their professional digital persona. I thank each of them for taking the time to share their insights, challenges, tips and cautions.
The hangout will be broadcast live on Monday, February 29th at 8:00 p.m. EST. The recorded conversation will be helpful for reflection on professional digital persona.
You can watch the live broadcast or connect through Google+.
You can join the Twitter conversation using the #digpersona, #OntEd and #mdl4000 hashtags.
References
Hinrichsen, J., & Coombs, A. (2014). The five resources of critical digital literacy: a framework for curriculum integration. Research In Learning Technology, 21. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v21.21334
Jenkins, R. (2015, April 3). The 4 Properties of Powerful Teachers. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/The-4-Properties-of-Powerful/228483/
Five Flames 4 Learning 
I like how you mentioned safety and security to give a reminder to everyone about using persona and how ones need to be smart and safe. Being safe is not always the first thing that everyone thinks about with new digital spaces. Persona is a digital space that is just amazing, on the fact that a group of teachers came together for a hangout that was broadcast live on Monday, February 29th at 8:00 p.m. Within the hangout I was wowed how the teachers were specifically directed all about the students, putting the students first. Since there is so many teachers out there that are looking to support and help students by looking for hangout chats and connecting with them. Persona is very important consideration for educators to connect with students. I once made a google hangout with students within my class and being able to connect with one another without actual being together was fantastic. The hangout was on a book we read and the thought we had gathered. By having hangouts it allows people that want to connect to connect. I don’t know what life was like without persona and the digital world, how did educators connect with each other?
Marissa Smith