Online... presence?

I just got married last summer. I was VERY aware of what happened when you googled my name. My online presence was masked behind a much more present individual with the same name. Let us suffice it to say that the only way that you would ever have a chance of seeing my minimal online presence is by making sure that the content filter is flipped to EXTREMELY strict. You guessed it, folks, I shared my name with a porn star. Combine that with the face that I have always been relatively wary about posting things out in the public online forums, and I was virtually invisible in the digital sector.

It was a pleasure to find that the name Ashley Koontz does not belong to any ladies of the night (that are of any fame or fortune, at least), and as my passion grows for technology and information I am becoming increasingly more visible. Within the last year I have developed twice the internet presence that I have had in my past life with another name, however that is still relatively little to speak of. Throughout this class I have been more present on Twitter (though I mostly "retweet"- I have problems believing that many people care what I am having for breakfast); I have set up a Linked-In account (though I am still exploring why this is important in my every day life- still searching for an answer; I have created an instagram account (this mostly comprises of pictures of the center of my world- my three dogs); and as with all new ventures it takes only a little to learn a lot about what you still have to learn.

The first thing I found of myself was a link to my class webpage which I think is a good start. I plan on maintaining the class webpage, as well as possibly branching out to Twitter and Instagram to help students stay up to date with what we are doing in class. I have a YouTube account for videos that I am creating for my classroom, however I currently have that set on "unlisted" because my wariness of original content being available for critique is still in the process of being broken down. I am slowly but surely working my way out into the open, but what could be true of many teachers is that technology is a bit like a swimming pool. Our digital natives jump in the pool without regard to weather, temperature, or atmosphere. Those of us that have had our systems shocked by excessively cold water enough times venture a little more cautiously. We dip our toe in the pool and slowly work our bodies in until the water is a comfortable temperature. Right now I am wading in knee deep and proudly. It is still going to take me some time to have a more significant digital presence, but I am more likely to stay in the pool if I get comfortable where I am first!