Creating an online resume

Helpful ideas for teaching students about maintaining their online presence and online resumes, thanks to Kathleen Salinas from Rogue Community College, from the Oregon CCWD Tech Summit at Lane Community College:

Quickwrite: How do others see you? What kind of words would people use to describe you?
Student sample: People have told me I'm passionate, full of energy, smart and generous. I like to laugh, especially at myself, and to share my mistakes. I'm a big picture person.

Invite a student to collect words on the board coming from the quick write.
Students can use ideas from the list to add to their own collection.

What is the image you want to portray?
Comparison - what would be positive and negative images you could portray?
Whole group discussion with students - can have students type into projected graphic organizer within a Power Point created by the teacher
Student sample:
Positive: smiling, with family, with pets and children, connected to organizations, professional dress
Negative: swear words, sexual images, drugs, alcohol, smoking

How does the paper resume portray your image, style and personality?

Whole group discussion, collecting responses from the quick write in power point
Sample: nice paper, quality, organized, neat, meet needs of audience by following through
depth of knowledge, style, ability to work within a structure, attention to detail, critical thinking, level of interest and motivation

Conversation starter: "Starting in 2008, employers type your name into a search engine and Bammo! If you've used the internet: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, employers see your online resume. Excerpt from What Color is My Parachute. The 2013 has an entire section about online resumes.

Employers will search the internet to find out information about you, and can get more access by paying money. On the other hand, employers who can't find any information about you on the net are not likely to follow up with interviews. How can we use this to our advantage?

Conversation starter: Youtube clips from the Ellen Show - what I learned about you on Facebook
Conversation starter: spokeo collects free web information about you (note you can request info. to be removed)

Sample: Manage or remove anything that would cause someone to reject you. For example, close off your Facebook with the security settings. Put a nice professional picture for the home page that is public. Edit posts. Write clearly. Completing sections with precision, for example on LinkedIn.

How to show that you have positive qualities?
Samples:
hard-working - pictures of volunteer work or taking on a task - before/after pictures
inventive - things you have created or designed - could use pinterest
disciplined - what you don't show
dependable - other people may comment about you
honest
trustworthy

What online resume sites could you use?
LinkedIn is a major leader in this service. Available to the public. May trigger job advertisements for openings and students can use the site to note locations where they would like to work.

Reviewing categories - noting that it includes certificates could motivate students to use career pathways. Noting that it includes volunteer experience could motivate more volunteering and networking.

Tech day for teachers

It's nice to have someone else reviewing and organizing new technology ideas and resources while you are busy in the classroom, especially if that someone is reviewing what works for teachers.

Here at the Tech Summit at Lane Community College for Oregon's Community Colleges and Workforce Development department, teachers are sharing resources they rely on.

• Richard Byrne's blog Free Technology for Teachers comes highly recommended. The top entry today reviews free web tools for creating digital stories, a process that can engage students in thinking critically, expressing themselves and build their tech confidence at the same time.
• Another site recommended is Weebly, which allows you to create websites for free and uses a simple and accessible drag and drop design. Weebly also has a free app available through iTunes.