Technology in Ontario

This morning's Toronto Star had three interesting articles about technology.

The first article entitled Oh, What a tangled Web print we leave discusses how digitally archived details of embarrassing events are proving problematic for countless job seekers. Don Tapscott, author of Grown Up Digital, predicts thousands of young people will miss out on dream jobs because of online reference checks. The Internet is a resilient database with a great many virtual skeletons in a great many closets! The following are suggestions for ways to let the 'real you' shine through:

1. Delete what you can.
2. Contact webmasters - check Whois.net to find who is behind a site.
   
3. Bury the evidence - create more favorable content
4. Get protection - there are a few websites offering to protect your online reputation such as Reputation Defender which charges a monthly fee to track your name online

The second article was about teachers learning about technology from tech-savvy teens through the 'adopt a teacher' program at a Toronto secondary school. Teachers met with students for two hours a month, This month teachers are giving presentations to showcase their new skills! What a great idea! This article appeared on the coattails of last week's article about Ontario schools needing to upgrade use of technology in the classroom in order to reduce retention rate. So many benefits come out of this program - community, collaboration, knowledge-building, bridging the gap, etc.