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https://www.instantcheckmate.com/report-review/
It sounds a bit lurid, no? I would hate to be a celebrity, because there's way too much information about these people out there already. I'm a nobody and this site promises all this juicy gossip...The next step discusses how this background report on me may be graphic and how they don't censor their reports. I got a bit further in this website and they asked for money, so I decided not to continue.
This was a surprising way to start my data mining, so I decided to try another website that I'd heard about, but never visited: RateMyTeachers.com. Well I first tried Illinois-teachers.findthedata.org., but for some reason I wasn't able to access it. So RMTs made me feel good about myself, because there were a few nice comments. I hear my students talk about the site all the time, but apparently most of them don't post comments.
After that I went to a couple other sites and found information was sometimes true and sometimes untrue. One site had incorrect information about my salary and my age. There were mentions of people I'd never heard of as my relatives. I saw my name come up in connection to some high school athletic coaches' blogs because my son played sports and I would host pasta parties or parents parties. I found some pictures as well of my son running cross and I'm in the background...that was a nice reminder of my son's high school years. A quote I had sent to a publisher came up a few times during my data dig, I completely forgot about it but they use it in their advertising. Even my high school has an online alumnae website where they post births and deaths.
This assignment is making me think about privacy, and whether we are entitled to it any more or not. It also makes me think about the issue of our phone companies allowing federal authorities access to our information. Usually this is related to some high-stakes situation, but you never know, maybe this practice will become more widespread. Do I sound paranoid? Teachers need to discuss these issues with students, probably more than once, so students are really aware of all that is out there about them. During Nicole's presentation she discussed the online presence of babies and young children. It seems innocent enough, but I encourage my nieces and nephews not to post pictures online. I think it's ok to text pics, but I'm not sure about online.
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In Sympathy - Regina Dominican High School
https://rdhs.org/alumnae/in-sympathy/
Chris George Gutekanst, father of Carol Gutekanst '76, Karen Gutekanst Barr '78, Mary, Cathleen, Noreen, Rita and Joan. Finishing up, I went to a few other sites and found pretty much the same information. My friends and I laugh and say how glad we are that we grew up when we did, because I ran with a slightly wild bunch, and our indiscretions are not on view for everyone to see. I'm always telling my students and my son, you can't be too careful!! And now that I've done this data dig, I really believe that. When I'm online I rarely think about the digital tattoo I'm leaving. Even with this blog for class, and other websites and blogs I've written, I see them mostly as assignments to be done. But the fact that they are available to the public is something I need to remember.
I also got linked to RateMyTeacher.com when I was searching my name. I was very surprised to see I had an account even though I didn't have any comments on my at all. I used a similar site called ratemyprofessors.com while I was in college to see what professors to take. I didn't really know/think about how there could be a high school teacher site out there as well and I guess there is! I'm not 100% how I was added to this website but I thought it was kind of weird but also not really a big deal since nothing was said about me. I did go and read theFAQ section which I sound to be VERY interesting. http://www.ratemyteachers.com/faq
ReplyDeleteI also agree that it was interesting to see the blog come up and remember about how it can be accessed. It seems weird since we are usually just thinking about posting to discussion on D2L and it being more private and thus just get the assignment done. Good point!
"Data Dig"- I like this term!
ReplyDelete