Data Dig

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This was a very interesting assignment. I felt like I was a private investigator, investigating information on myself. Oddly enough, I actually enjoyed the assignment. I always thought of myself being somewhat private when it comes to social media. More specifically when it comes to working with my teen students. Many of my high school students always ask for my Facebook name, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat etc. I was surprised at how easily much of my information could be found online. I used various websites for my data mine which included Blockshopper, Socialmention, Nuwber, Pipl, Radaris, Instant Checkmate, and a google search. I also used whitepages.com. Many of the sites listed my correct age, current, and former addresses as well as my family members. Instant Checkmate had the most information on me which included my undergrad college address. The Google search revealed my social media usernames. I’m not very concerned about the information but found it interesting that so much personal information could be discovered with only a name and a city. I believe that this is a skill that should be taught to students. Especially, high school students. Many employers search the internet for information on potential employees. Students should be aware of this and monitor the information online about them. Teachers, parents, mentors and any individual who work with students should be responsible for teaching students about this skill.

I found the following video interesting. The video is about Data Mining and how it is used in a variety of ways.