running head: online identity analysis of steven ......online identity analysis 2 takes a lot of...

Running head: ONLINE IDENTITY ANALYSIS OF STEVEN AND HOPE

Online Identity Analysis

Mallory Lessasrd

Post University

EDU520: Digitally Mediated Teaching and Learning

Instructor Linda Kaiser

Online Identity Analysis 1

Steven and Hope

Creating a professional online identity takes time and effort. When wanting to showcase

one’s work and collaborate with others, one must create a professional space where the audience

can learn and connect with the author. Two educators that have a positive professional online

identity are Steven Anderson and Hope King.

Steven Anderson describes himself as a dad, learning evangelist, educator and author. He

has won many awards for his contribution in technology education and is an advocate for

incorporating technology in the classroom as well as the importance of collaboration among

teachers. Anderson runs his own website (www.web20classroom.org) where he has a blog that is

often updated to aid in the field of educational technology. Anderson is very active on Twitter

(@web20classroom) where he is a founder of the education chat, #edchat, where teachers across

the world can easily connect about diverse topics.

Hope King is an elementary educator that is currently teaching fifth and sixth graders at

the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. She has been an educator since 2007, has taught a

few different grade levels, and has won awards including the Debra Deeds Excellence in

Teaching Award. King has her own website (www.elementaryshenanigans.com) where she has

an active blog and a store to share her teaching resources. King is also very active on Instagram

(@elementaryshenanigans) and Twitter (@hopekingteach).

Professional Online Identity

Anderson and King both are active online and have created a personal brand for

themselves. According to the Queens University of Charlotte North Carolina (2016), “You need

to be constantly cognizant to lead with your best foot forward and communicate strategically, so

anyone who views your profile will have the impression that you want them to have.” (para 8). It


takes a lot of time and effort to keep the audience engaged as well as being dependable and

consistent with the content that is published for one’s brand.

Steven Anderson

Steven Anderson runs his own website at www.web20classroom.org. Here is able to keep

his audience up to date on his upcoming speeches, current thoughts on his blog and information

on his current books and where to buy them. Anderson has a fun and quirky of himself on his

website, with his signature bowtie. The bowtie is part of his personal brand and can often be

found around his neck at his presentations.

(http://www.web20classroom.org/)

Anderson is most active with keeping his brand current by consistently posting on his

Twitter account. He is a co-author for the book The Relevant Educator:

How Connectedness Empowers Learning, and is an advocate for making connections and

networking among teachers. Therefore, he is often updating his Twitter account by posting


relevant publications about education and technology. Some of the post are from his blog while

others are from outside resources. The tweets and posts are all relative to the professional

identity he has created and does not question his personal brand or professionalism.

(https://twitter.com/web20classroom)

As it can be seen from his tweet one September 17, Anderson quotes how important it is

to be able to network with each other and create a network with connections and ideas about

education. Anderson is able to maintain his professional identity and passion of networking of

teachers by having these weekly education chats over Twitter. His hashtag (#edchat) can be

easily accessed and one can read many different topics about education.

Anderson also has a blog that can be accessed easily from his website and is often

hyperlinked on his Twitter accounts. According to Sue Waters’ post on why she blogs, she

reminds us that blogging is a great platform to reflect and add information that is personal and

creative. (Waters, 2015). Anderson has done this by using his blog as a source of reflection from

personal experience as well as research about educational technology.


(blog.web20classroom.org)

Here Anderson publishes a blog post about a personal experience he recently has with

hosting a professional development. He states that one the audience members fell asleep during

his presentation. Instead of keeping it a secret or pretending it never happens, Anderson takes

opportunity from the moment and reflects on why it happened and how it can be prevented in the

future. He was able to take a personal “failure” and make it a learning moment, in his own

words, in keeping with his professional image and educate others. What a great example of how

powerful one’s published blog can be.

Hope King

King is most active with her Twitter and Instagram accounts. Each tweet or post relates to

her professional life as a teacher, speaker, and resource creator. King has presented herself as an

enthusiastic educator like is enjoying teaching and wants others to be inspired to teach. As she is

an educator at the Ron Clark Academy, her posts are related to the school as well as her


excitement for learning. With pictures of classroom transformations or student work, King is

consistent with keeping her online identity professional.

(http://www.elementaryshenanigans.com/p/about-me.html)

Elementaryshenanigans.com is King’s website as well as her blog. Here she post

information about upcoming conferences where she will be speaking as well as information

directly from her classroom. As seen from the above picture, King’s website and blog are

consistent with a fun theme that feels like an elementary classroom. She maintains this colorful

theme throughout her website and her teacher store at Teacherspayteacher.com.


(https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Hope-King)

King’s website and blog haven’t been updated since August 10th, where she posted an

online contest. At first glance it might seem like she is trying to give her audience members a

reward but with further investigation one would see that King is part of a “loop” of bloggers.

This contest is a way to get her blog followers to follow other educational bloggers as well as

gain more followers. This is a tool to remember when wanting to gain more followers for a blog

to reach more people and open up the network of educators.

King is mostly active on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Some of the content overlaps

each other but it is all maintained in a professional setting and lets her brand of educator first.


(https://www.facebook.com/Hope-Kings-Elementary-Shenanigans-

818659184921054/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf)

From King’s professional Facebook page, she is able us use the “live” feature of

Facebook and takes blogging to new life. She is able to take a moment and use a live video to

showcase her reflections and information that she may have put down as a blog post. This may

be why her blog hasn’t been updated since August 10, but has a few posts from after the 10th.


(https://twitter.com/hopekingteach)

From King’s Twitter account she is able to keep a professional image current. She

follows the idea of networking and not only showcases her own personal work but other’s work

that one can use as inspiration. King’s Twitter and Facebook have some of the same posts to

ensure her ideas and work are showcased and seen. This is a good idea when thinking about

creating a professional online learning environment as it allows many different platforms to post

and publish information and allows the audience to “tune in” to the appropriate platform of their

choice. Hope also does a great job with creating those networks of educators and showcase

other’s work.


(https://www.instagram.com/elementaryshenanigans/)

King is also very active on Instagram. She tends to use Instagram to showcase a snapshot

of her classroom and personal teaching. Instagram is a great platform to showcase one’s work

because it allows the user to take a moment of time and post online. With the post, one can then

describe what is going on, use a hashtag to connect with others, and make a visual representation

of his or her own reflections and work. Instagram allows others to take a peek into one’s life and

King is able to use to continue with keeping her professional bran and identity online. It is

important to note that one can easily see what her students are learning and how she teaches

those students. It is also important to know that both King and Anderson both use the online

platforms to showcase the best of the best and when reflecting on using their practices one must

realize that only the good is shown versus the burn out days and failures.


Data

Both Anderson and King have respective websites, blogs, Twitter accounts and

Instagram. These will be the accounts that will be monitored for postings that are applicable to

each educator. Both websites will be visited for on updates and changes as well as the

effectiveness of branding themselves professionally. Twitter will be monitored and analyzed for

reasons why they tweet and if it continued to promote their professional identity that they each

have branded.

The data that will be collected and analyze what type of posts are published, if it is

personal or professional and what does the content relate to. A table will be created where

tracking of published posts will be collected and rated on how user friendly the content is as well

as professional. The table will also track how often they are each active online via their websites,

Twitter, blogs and Instagrams. Most importantly, the table will also track if the post continues to

be relevant to both Anderson and King’s current online identity.

Personal Learning Environment

If one was to use Anderson and King’s online professional presence as a guide, one

would be able to take away a few ideas on how to create a professional online identity. Both

educators are able to present current, up to date, relevant information for their audiences. Twitter

and Instagram are a social media platform where one can share his or her thoughts, reflections

and information quickly and efficiently. With the access of social media in the palm of one’s

hand, creating and analyzing one’s personal brand is easier than before. Also, one’s audience is

now specific and is chosen by the audience member. Following Anderson and King on social

media it is easy to see the keeping the audience engaged is important to keeping up with one’s

own brand.


Both educators also are able to show reflection and personal side that many may not be

able to showcase. If one can make a connection with the author or the blog or website, then one

may gain more from the post. For example, when Anderson introduces himself he often lables

himself a dad as well as author and educator. A small glimpse into one’s life gives the reader a

chance to make a connection and not only see the professional, business side of the author but

also the human side. King had a post about how she takes time to reflect and slow down to

ensure she doesn’t have a burn out that many educators experience. With these personal words

one can make a connection on a personal level as well as the business level.

When planning my own personal learning environment I will take away the idea of

keeping an up to date platform that is user friendly and accurate in information. I want my PLE

to be one where the highlight reel of my teaching and learning could be found and enjoyed. I

need to create a professional online identity within the social media platforms such as Twitter

and Instgram to easily catch the attention of my audience as well as make the network

connections that are vital. I will also take the time to reflect on my blog and create a space that is

enjoyable to read but useful in the education field.


References

King, H. (n.d.). Elementary Shenanigans. Retrieved September 03, 2016, from

http://www.elementaryshenanigans.com/

Queens University (2016) Managing Personal vs. Professional Identity on Social Media |

Queens University of Charlotte Online. Retrieved from:http://online.queens.edu/masters-in-

communication/resource/managing-personal-vs-professional-identity-on-social-media%20

Steven W. Anderson-Web20Classroom. (n.d.). Retrieved September 03, 2016, from

http://www.web20classroom.org/

Waters, S. (2015). Why I Blog (And How You Can Too). Retrieved September 18, 2016,

from https://www.theedublogger.com/2015/07/17/why-i-blog-and-how-you-can-too/

http://www.web20classroom.org/

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