Which creates more digital traces: surfing the Internet in a coffee shop, or using an iPhone to send a text message? The answer may surprise you! An interactive resource prompts users to choose which devices, operating systems, and online services they use before calculating the number of local, network, and Internet fingerprints accumulated in their digital lives.

Concepts

Digital Citizenship, online communication, internet safety, the internet

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Additional Tags

college and career readiness

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Instructional Ideas

• Incorporate into a digital citizenship lesson in a computer lab or with individual tablets
• Have learners guess how many traces they collect in their daily lives before starting the activity
• Include the additional steps at the top of the page in a lesson on online safety

Classroom Considerations

• Clever class members may note that using the site itself will garner several online traces

Pros

• Relevant, explanatory, and straightforward
• Provides solutions to take control over one's data
• Includes a collection of apps designed to protect privacy

Cons

• None