Summary Response

“Footprints in the Digital Age” by Will Richardson, suggests that students today should work towards creating an online portfolio and a positive online reputation. Richardson illustrates this by explaining that the worst thing that could happen when someone looks up your name is, nothing showing up. “Footprints in the Digital Age” by Will Richardson asserts that students need to post their work, inside and outside of school, online for the world to see, to build their online status.

"Footprints in the Digital Age” by Will Richardson, correctly portrays that being known on the web is a good thing because it creates a positive online reputation. In Richardson’s article, he depicts that students should post their work online to get their name on the internet so they can connect with others that would like to see their writing. Richardson gives an example of a student sharing their work, he states, "Twenty-Five Days to Make a Difference," quickly caught the eye of some other philanthropic bloggers. Within a short time, Laura found herself in the midst of a community of volunteers far outside her geographic reach. The ClustrMap on her site tracks tens of thousands of readers from such places as China, Australia, Africa, and South America” (Richardson). This is just one example of how students can network themselves and share their thoughts and ideas with like-minded people around the world. However, the downsides of posting their work online outweigh the upsides. Richardson fails to address many of the possible downsides of students posting work online, like plagiarism. Many studies show that many students around the world plagiarize others work. Plagiarism.com states, “In a survey of 24,000 students at 70 high schools, Donald McCabe (Rutgers University) found that 64 percent of students admitted to cheating on a test, 58 percent admitted to plagiarism” (Plagiarism.org). This shows the sheer amount and frequency of people that plagiarize others work. This means that there is a pretty high, that if they post their work online, it will be plagiarized. Many think that the possible downsides of students posting their work online outways the upsides and one cannot deny that there are downsides. However getting their name on the web has benefits for the long-run as well as the short. For example, Richardson uses the idea that when a possible future employer looks their name up, an impressive online portfolio will come up, with many of their accomplishments and work. It also helps short term so they can share your thoughts/ideas to others and well network yourself. “Footprints in the Digital Age” by Will Richardson, correctly portrays that being well networked online helps you grow and connect with others because you can share your thoughts with people around the world.